Sonic: Before Heroism
by Camobamo1
Summary: Sonic, an eight-year-old hedgehog, has just been through the death of his immediate family, but is he going to get the help he really needs? Rated T for swearing and violence.
1. Prologue

_This is my new story, Sonic: Before Heroism. It's meant to be sort of a prequel to _The Two-Tailed Fox_ and _Rogue the Hedgehog_. However, there is no particular order you'd need to read any of the stories in, and you wouldn't even need to read all of them. I'm not finished with any of them yet, but once they're done, I plan to have them make sense no matter which one you read first. Have fun reading, and I hope you like my story!_

* * *

Prologue

"Mom, look! Look at how fast I'm going!" Eight-year-old Ogilvie Maurice the Hedgehog, who preferred to be called by his nickname, Sonic, was running around his backyard on Christmas Island in complete joy. He had been practicing for a while, and he could go up to around seven hundred miles an hour. His mother, Bernadette, applauded the speedy little critter and exclaimed, "That's very good, Sonic, honey! Just be careful now, or you'll bump into something." Sonic winked and gave her a thumbs-up. "Don't worry, I'll be—OOF!"

He slammed right into a tree since he wasn't looking where he was going. He slid down to the ground, and an apple fell from the tree and hit him on the head. "Ouchie! That hurt…" He got up from the ground and brushed the dirt off of himself. "She told you to watch out, Sonic!" said a voice from behind him. He turned around to see his six-year-old brother, Samuel, standing there. "Hey, Sam. I know… I need to be more careful, but I'm fine. See? No bruises or anything."

Sam chuckled and walked over to Sonic. "Yeah! Just keep doing that and you won't get hurt at all!" he mocked sarcastically. Sonic rolled his emerald-green eyes and responded, "Oh, shut up, squirt." He gave his little brother a noogie before Sam told Sonic, "Dad says the chili dogs are done." The words "chili dogs" made Sonic's pointed ears perk up. "All right!" He revved up his feet and ran over to his house. "Make way! Chili dogs, here I come!" He rushed into this home and into the kitchen, where his father, Jules, grabbed his arm and exclaimed, "Whoa, there, Ogilvie!" His father was the only person whom he allowed to call him "Ogilvie". "You'll get your chili dogs if you calm down."

Sonic sighed and slowly grabbed a plate from the cabinet above him. "Okay…" he moaned. He set the plate down on the counter next to the stove, and Jules put three hot dogs on it. Then, he scooped some chili onto all three of the hot dogs, and not even a second after he was done, Sonic grabbed the plate and dashed over to the table, where he stuffed a whole half of one into his mouth. "Okay, kiddo, slow down," said Jules. But Sonic didn't want to slow down. He wanted to taste the full goodness of the chili dogs.

"If you don't eat slower, I'll have to take those chili dogs away from you." This one sentence caused Sonic to immediately take smaller bites and take more time chewing his food. He hated eating slowly, but he hated not eating worse, and when his father said something, he meant it. After about a minute, Sam and Bernadette walked into the kitchen from outside, and Jules dished his youngest one chili dog and gave his wife two. He put two on his own plate, and they all sat at the table.

"Before you eat anymore," started Bernadette to Sonic. "we need to say grace." Sonic was about to take the last bite of his first chili dog when he set it down and folded his hands. Jules led the prayer and the others joined in. After that, Sonic finished off his first chili dog and began on his second one. All of them ate their chili dogs, and once they were done, Sonic went over to the TV in their living room and turned on his old GameCube after he put in a game titled _Sonic Adventure DX_.

The young blue hedgehog had always wondered if the hedgehog named "Sonic" in the game was actually an older version of him, but frankly, when he was playing it, he didn't care. He always had too much fun with it to focus on that. While he often played as the character of Sonic, he also would play as the character of Tails, an orange fox, frequently as well. Sam and Tails' personalities were very much alike, so he naturally liked Tails' character. That day, however, he was playing as the red echidna, Knuckles.

Unlike most days, however, he actually was thinking about how the Sonic in the game could very well be him. "I just hope I don't have a stubborn friend like Knux when I'm older," he said to Sam, who was watching him play the game. Little did Sonic know that almost every event that transpired within those games would come to be someday. Sam chuckled and responded, "With your luck, you'll have tons of stubborn friends like him!" This made Sonic chuckle as well. "Probably, little bud." Lighthearted conversations were common amongst the two brothers. A conversation with a similar relaxed feel took place amongst their parents in the kitchen.

"I'm so glad that those two get along so well," stated Bernadette with a smile on her face. An alike smile appeared on Jules' face as well. "Yes. They don't argue like me and my brother did." However, the discussion quickly changed moods when Bernadette sighed and said, "I know I shouldn't be thinking of this kind of thing, but if something were to happen to us, I'm not sure if I'd want the children to stay with him. He gets intoxicated so often." Jules comforted his wife by hugging her and whispered into her ear, "But nothing's gonna happen to us, honey, so why think about that, anyway?"

She whispered into his ear in much the same fashion, "I know, Jules, I know." Despite what she said, though, Bernadette couldn't shake the feeling that something was amiss; that something terrible was going to happen later that day.

After about half an hour of playing games, the doorbell rang. "Yes!" exclaimed Sonic. "He's here!" He opened the door, and at it stood his best friend, a raccoon named Vermillion after his fur color. Sonic had invited Vermillion over to his house at one o'clock so they could play a few video games and games outside. Vermillion was about three inches taller than Sonic, and was only a year older. Like many male anthropomorphic animals on Mobius, the only clothes he wore were gloves and shoes, so the vermillion and white fur on his body was completely visible.

Sonic looked at the clock by the door and said, "One o'clock. Prompt as always, Milly!" Vermillion didn't care that "Milly" sounded like the girl's name, "Millie". It was just what he preferred to be called. That was one of the things Sonic liked about him. He let himself be himself. Milly smiled and replied, "I try, Sonic! Anyway, are we gonna play some Melee or not?" He was always straight and to the point. "Sure!" answered Sonic.

_Super Smash Brothers: Melee_ was one of their favorite games to play together. Unlike most brothers do when they have friends over, Sonic and Milly even let Sam play a couple rounds with them. After having some fun playing _Melee_, the two boys went outside to play some soccer, which was Milly's favorite sport. To make conversation, Sonic asked, "So, Milly, have you gotten anybody to want to adopt you yet?" Milly was living in the orphanage on Christmas Island, and had been ever since he could remember. He had always hoped to find someone to adopt him, but in the ten years he had been there, he'd had no such luck. Milly simply shook his head.

"If only we had enough room in our house for one more," started Sonic. "Then you could maybe stay here." Milly smiled at the gesture and replied, "Yeah. I'd like that, but I've been wondering if I should just act differently when people try to adopt me. There's another couple coming to see me tomorrow, and I've been trying to work out what to say to them. Do you think I should be myself?" That was an odd question for Milly. They repeatedly kicked the ball back and forth as they continued conversing.

"Of course, Milly. You're not gonna get people to like you if you're not yourself."

"But I've been trying for so long, Sonic!"

"Well, keep trying. I know that's easier said than done, but you need to."

"Nobody likes who I am, though."

"I like who you are," stated Sonic. "Doesn't that count for anything? My parents like who you are. Sam likes who you are. All of your other friends like who you are. You just need to be yourself. Tell the next couple that tries to adopt you everything about you. I guarantee that there's some family out there that would want you to be part of it." Sonic had always been good at encouraging other people, especially those close to him, like Sam and Milly. A wide smile spread across Milly's face. "You're right, Sonic. Thanks for that. Sometimes, I don't know what I'd do without you."

Sonic stopped the ball and started to stroke his chin. "You'd be lost in an eternal spiral of not having a friend as good as me!" he shouted overdramatically, which made them both laugh. They began to kick the ball back and forth again, but soon became weary, and they walked over and sat at the picnic table. It was already three forty-five, and in about fifteen minutes, Milly would have to be back at the orphanage. "Too bad I couldn't sleep over tonight since we have school tomorrow," he said after five minutes. Despite being a year older than Sonic, he was still in the same grade, since the orphanage didn't put him in kindergarten until he was six, while Sonic went in right at five.

"Yeah," responded Sonic as they got up and walked to the front yard. "See ya tomorrow, buddy!" Sonic watched as his friend walked down the street. He walked back inside, but then remembered something very important. His eyes widened at the realization. "I still have homework to do!" he exclaimed. He immediately ran to his room, opened his backpack, and pulled the math book and his notebook out of it. He started on the not too terribly difficult mathematics assignment, and within five minutes, Sam walked in. "You forgot to do your homework again, didn't you?"

_Dang!_ exclaimed Sonic in his mind. _That kid knows everything!_ Sonic looked up at him and replied, "Nope. I just…" He was trying to come up with a good answer, but when he couldn't, he said, "Okay… I forgot about my homework…" Sometimes, he hated when his little brother did that to him. "Just leave me be for right now. I'm halfway through. I just need to finish these last ten problems." The child did as he was told and left the room.

After seven minutes, Sonic put away his stuff and walked out to the living room, where his family was sitting. "Hey, guys!" he exclaimed as he walked out and plopped down on one of the couches next to his mother. "So, Ogilvie," started Jules. "Your mother and I have been talking it over…" Then, Bernadette continued the sentence. "And we weren't going to tell you until tomorrow, but seeing as Milly has, in a way, already told you, we're planning…" Then, they both said at the same time, "on bringing him into the family."

It took Sonic a moment to process everything. "Wait a second! You're that couple that's going to see Milly tomorrow, aren't you?" Bernadette smiled in reply. "Does he know?" asked Sonic. Jules shook his head and answered, "No. We wanted to surprise him as well." This was truly an exciting moment for Sonic. Not only was he going to get to see his friend more often, but Milly would finally have a family to call his own. It was a dream come true. However, when Sonic was about to exclaim the word "yes", he was interrupted by a couple of knocks at the door.

After the knocks, though, the door was kicked down, and two adult male humans burst through the doorway, which scared everybody half to death, especially young Sam. "Get down!" one of them commanded. "This is a raid!" The whole family did as they were told, and the other man walked up to them and held Sonic by his torso as he said, "If you don't want this boy hurt, you won't resist!" Innocence took over Sonic's normally coolheaded way of thinking as he yelled in fear, "Mom! Dad!"

Sam, however, stood up and started barraging the man holding Sonic with small and weak punches. "Let my big brother go, you big meanie!" The man smirked and responded, "All right, you want me to let him go? I'll let him go!" He threw Sonic across the room and into the kitchen, where he landed in the sink with his stomach down. Inside the sink were a couple of sharp knives, which cut Sonic several times in the chest and stomach areas. He screamed in pain and reached down to the knives, taking them out of that part of the sink and putting them in the other. He freaked out as he saw blood streaming from the cuts.

Still in the living room, Sam was pelleting the man with punches. "You big meanie! You hurt Sonic! I'm gonna beat you up!" Bernadette stood up and tried to walk over to Sam, but the other man quickly raised his gun and shot a bullet. The bullet had hit its mark not even a second later and went through Bernadette's head. This made tears well up in Sonic's eyes, and poor little Sam instantaneously burst into tears. He may have only been six, but he very well knew what death was.

Tears even came out of Jules' eyes. The man quickly stood up and tried to run over to his wife's now lifeless body, but he too was stopped by a bullet to the head. Sam collapsed to the ground in a fit of crying. "Be quiet you little brat!" exclaimed the man whom he was punching only five seconds ago. He pulled out his own gun and shot the crying child in the stomach. After this made him scream even more, the man kicked him in the head, which quickly made him go unconscious.

Needless to say, Sonic was utterly horrified at the horrendous events that had just taken place. He had just seen the merciless slaughter of his own parents and watched his little brother get shot in the stomach and knocked out. Could things get any worse? He painfully climbed out of the sink and fell to the ground after doing so, which sent signals of pain throughout his chest and stomach areas, but he crawled over to Sam's unconscious and bleeding body.

"What should we do about him?" asked the man who shot Sonic's parents. The other man shrugged and replied, "Leave him. He'll probably bleed out, anyway." Then, Sonic had to watch in absolute dismay as the two men gathered everything valuable within the house and put it on their truck outside. He wanted the escape of unconsciousness, but that wasn't granted to him, even with all of the blood he was losing. When they had removed everything of value from the house, Sonic thought and hoped they were done, but that wasn't to be.

"Set fire to the house," commanded the man whom Sam had punched several times. _No…_ thought Sonic. _No… Don't… Please, don't…_ Even more tears welled up in the suffering hedgehog's eyes. He didn't even have the energy to say the word "no" as the other man lit a couple matches and tossed them on the wooden floor in the kitchen. Both men ran as the burning matches hit the floor, and the floor immediately caught on fire. Sonic heard tires screech outside as the fire spread in the kitchen.

Sonic's adrenaline started pumping as he realized that Sam was still alive, and that he needed to get him out of here at any cost. He stood up and agonizingly lifted the young boy up, and he ran as fast as he could outside. He ran about fifteen feet away from the house and set Sam down on the grass, after which he immediately collapsed onto the ground. Both he and Sam were staining the grass and the dirt red.

Sonic was now just watching as the house he had lived in for eight years burst into flames. "Mom… Dad…" he mumbled. He wanted to save his parents, but he knew they were already dead, and he wouldn't be able to carry them out of the house anyway. Not in the shape he was in. He struck the ground and yelled at the top of his lungs, "NO!" He was devastated. Fifteen minutes ago, he was given the most exciting news of his life, and now his whole life was falling apart in front of him, burning up along with his house.

Then, Sam awoke and let out a small cough. "S-Sonic… Are you there?" Sonic excruciatingly got on his knees and crawled over to Sam. "Right here, Sammy. Right here." Sam let out a few more coughs and asked, "Am I gonna die, Sonic?" Sonic knew the correct answer to the question, but he didn't want to say that, not to him. Sonic knew that they were both going to die. "Of course not, Sammy," he replied as reassuringly as he could. "We're gonna make it."

"Sonic…" started the young boy weakly. "I'm glad the last one I saw is you." Tears were uncontrollably streaming down both boys' faces, but after about ten seconds, the tears ceased to come out of Sam's eyes, and his eyes stayed wide open. "Sam?" asked Sonic worriedly. "Sam? Sam? SAM?" Sonic put his finger on the boy's neck, hoping to feel a pulse, but he felt nothing, and he immediately began making sobbing noises as loudly as he could. He just lost everything. He lost his brother, his parents, and his home all in one fell swoop. He couldn't believe it. It had to be a dream. He tried closing his eyes and opening them after three seconds, but he was still there. Unfortunately, this was real.

He gently pulled his brother's eyelids closed and hugged his corpse tightly. He cried onto the non-moving shoulder and bled onto the non-rising stomach until he lost consciousness…


	2. Chapter One

**_VERY IMPORTANT INFORMATION BELOW!  
_**

_There has been a slight change in the timeline. For those of you who have been reading my story since before May 11, 2012, I need to tell you about this. Sonic starts out as eight years old, and Milly is nine. Anyway, happy reading!_

* * *

Chapter One

Sonic awoke, and his eyes shot open. He looked around, trying to get a grasp on his surroundings. He saw a machine at his left, and he was on a completely white bed. The small room he was in was flooded with daylight from the large window to this right, and he could tell from the sun's position in the sky that it was about noon. He felt lightheaded as he lifted his head up as much as possible and saw a door a few feet away from the foot of the bed, and he looked slightly to the right and saw someone sitting in a plastic chair. "Milly…" he mumbled. When Milly heard his name, his ears perked up, and he looked at Sonic.

"Sonic!" he exclaimed in total joy. He ran over to the still-woozy hedgehog and lightly hugged him. Sonic still hadn't grasped the situation, though. "I'm so glad you're safe!" Tears started to fall from the raccoon's blue eyes as he said, "I'm so, so sorry about what happened, Sonic… That shouldn't have had to happen to you…" That made Sonic remember everything: the fire, the two men, the gunfire… and the horrid sight of his dead family. That also made him realize where he was. He was in a hospital, and his wounds were being treated.

When Milly had released him, Sonic tried to get up from the bed, but all he could manage was to raise his torso up a few inches. "Milly, are they… really dead?" asked Sonic after he plopped back down on the bed. Milly closed his eyes for a few seconds and gave a solemn nod. This brought tears to the hedgehog's eyes as well. "Even little Sam's gone? Dammit!" Sonic shouted the first swearword he had ever used. "We never did anything wrong, and yet they died! Why? Why? WHY?" Sonic started audibly crying, and Milly once again hugged him to let the poor guy drain his tears. Sonic hugged Milly as well, and the two of them stayed in that position for about five minutes.

After that, Sonic and Milly released each other, and Milly looked at Sonic's puffy red eyes as he asked, "Feeling any better?" Sonic sniffled and answered, "No… Y'know, they were gonna come adopt you before that incident happened, but now that can't happen…" Milly's eyes widened at Sonic's last sentence. "They… They were? They were the family that was going to come see me today?" Sonic nodded. "They were gonna surprise you…" Then, Sonic realized something else. "Shouldn't you be at school right now? It is a school day, right?" He sounded like a parent to himself. Milly nodded and replied, "Yeah, but I convinced the orphanage to let me skip school today. After I heard what happened, I rushed over here and waited here the whole night for you to wake up."

Sonic was touched by how good of a friend Milly was being. He knew how important school was to the raccoon. "Everyone is worried about you, Sonic, especially little Max. He just started crying like nothing else when I told him." Maximilian Ultim was the son of Sonic's next-door neighbors and one of his and Milly's best friends. He was a shy but smart little six-year-old teal hedgehog with Asperger's syndrome that usually wore a black t-shirt and blue jean-shorts. "He said that he hopes you're okay, though." That was good.

Then, the door opened, and Milly said, "Speak of the devil…" Max and his parents walked through the door and closed it behind them, although Sonic couldn't see anybody until Max stood by the bed. "Hiya… Sonic…" he mumbled as shyly as always without making eye contact. Sonic had gotten used to that. As to try and raise the back of the bed up so he could sit, Sonic painfully ran his arms across the sides of the bed, but couldn't find anything. "How do you make the back of this thing go up?" he asked.

Milly bent down and moved a lever that was out of Sonic's reach, and he kept pressure on it until the back of the bed was at about a forty-five degree angle. "Hey, Max. How's it going, bud?" Sonic asked as happily as he could manage. Still without looking at him, Max replied, "G-good… I… I-I saw your house after it was burnt down… The fireman… He said this was all he could find…" He reached into his pocket and pulled out a picture of Sonic and his family that had slightly charred edges. Sonic's eyes welled up with tears as he looked at it. This was taken during Sonic's eighth birthday. _We had so much fun…_ thought Sonic.

Sonic burst into tears and yelled, "I want them back!" He dropped the picture onto his lap and cupped his hands around his eyes. "Did… I-I-I do… some… something… wrong?" stuttered Max nervously. Milly shook his head. "I think he just needs some time alone, that's all… See ya, Sonic…" Everyone walked out of the room, leaving Sonic to himself. "Sam… Mom… Dad…" he murmured through the sobbing sounds. _ If only I were the one to stand up to those thieves… Maybe… At least… Sam could have lived…_

Sonic didn't usually deal with "what ifs" and "why couldn't I's", but in this situation, it was all he could think about. Why couldn't he have been braver? What if he had been quicker to act after he got thrown in the sink? And the most important question of all: Why did this have to happen?

Outside of the room, Milly and Max were sitting on plastic chairs similar to the ones inside there. "Is… Sonic… gonna be… okay?" asked Max quietly as he fidgeted with his hands. Milly sighed and answered, "Eventually, but not anytime soon…" He paused for a few seconds before resuming. "It's just so weird to see him like this. He's always such an optimist, and I could tell he was trying to be as happy as possible until he saw that picture. He's just so depressed that it makes me wanna cry, too."

Back inside the room, Sonic slammed his fist on one of the metal parts of the bed. "Dammit! Why couldn't I have died, too?" This immediately got Max and Milly's attention, and although they didn't hear exactly what he said, him yelling at the top of his lungs was already a sign that something was wrong. Milly opened the door and asked, "Sonic, what's wrong? Did something happen?" Even more tears came out of the hedgehog's eyes before he replied, "I said, 'Why couldn't I have died, too?'! I don't get why I couldn't have died with them!"

Milly's mouth dropped wide open at the statement. It was at that point in time when Max's parents walked into the room as well. "I think it's about time that we should be taking our leave…" stated Max's father as the family walked out of the room, closing the door behind them. "Sonic, don't say things like that! You lived for a reason!" exclaimed Milly after he heard the door shut. Sonic shook his head as he responded, "Then what reason is that? Huh?"

Milly didn't have a good answer for him. He wasn't good at cheering people up. Not like Sonic was. "I don't know, but you don't have to know, and even if there isn't a reason, you're still alive! Doesn't that count for something?" Sonic sighed and shouted, "No! An innocent six-year-old and two very loving parents died! And I was the only one saved! How could it count for anything?" Sonic was making it very hard for Milly to even instigate any happiness within him. Then, he thought of something.

"Hey, I'm still alive," he started. "If I had stayed there longer, I would have probably been hurt or killed as well." Sonic stopped crying and looked at Milly. He was right. Milly _was_ still there. While this didn't completely cheer him up, it at least brought an ounce of happiness. Sonic even let a small smile work is way onto his face. "You're right, Milly. Thanks for that…"

However, there was one thing Sonic was still curious about. He lifted his blanket off his chest and saw slightly blood-stained bandages covering almost all of his torso. He shivered as he remembered getting thrown into the sink. "How bad were the cuts?" Milly started pacing around and answered, "They were pretty bad. They had to stitch a couple of them closed" …And that was when Sonic's stomach let out a loud growl.

The awkward timing of this made both children burst out in laughter. "I apparently need food…" stated Sonic. Milly smiled and replied, "No kidding! Lemme get you some food." Milly left the room to get his friend something to eat.

* * *

_Five days later_

It was eight thirty in the morning on Saturday, and Sonic was in the cafeteria of the hospital eating breakfast. He was eating his eggs and bacon as slowly as he could as to waste as much time as possible. That was the day he would leave the hospital and live with his drunkard uncle. It wasn't something he was looking forward to, so the later he had to leave, the better. However, Sonic's train of thought was interrupted when Milly burst through the door of the cafeteria yelling Sonic's name and holding onto a newspaper. "You've gotta see this!" he exclaimed with worry in his voice.

He skidded to a stop by Sonic's table and literally shoved the newspaper in his face. "Get that outta my face…" said Sonic, clearly irritated. "I'll read it in a sec…" He was in a very bad mood that morning. After a couple seconds, Sonic set his fork down and picked up the newspaper, but his eyes widened as he saw what Milly was so worried about, and his mood quickly changed. "They think that Max did that?" asked Sonic. Milly nodded. "I'm not exactly sure why they do, but an autistic and shy kid like Max wouldn't do something like that…"

The night beforehand, there had been unidentified gunshots coming from Max's house. Only minutes later, the GUN arrived at the scene and saw blood covering the walls, along with Max's parents on the ground with bullet wounds in their heads. Two unidentifiable and mutilated corpses were by one of the walls. The small teal hedgehog himself was crying and covered almost completely in blood, and he had a .45-caliber pistol by him with his fingerprints on it. When they tried to take the boy to juvenile hall, he resisted and ran away from what he thought were "scary men trying to hurt him".

"This had to be a setup!" exclaimed Sonic. "Max would never do anything even close to that! He'd never even hurt a fly!" Question after question was bouncing around in Sonic's head. No matter what questions were in his head, though, he was still preoccupied with the fact that his drunken uncle was going to be taking care of him. "Milly, do you think I'm gonna even be safe with Uncle Frank?" he asked before he took a bite of his eggs. "He's just so… so…" Milly finished his sentence for him. "Drunk?" Sonic sighed and leaned his chin on the palms of his hands while his elbows rested on the table. "Exactly. I was trying to come up with a better word, but… that works, too. And he's mean… Very mean…"

"You know that, if anything happens," started Milly. "you can always tell me or the police. I'll always be there for you. You know that, Sonic." Sonic nodded, but said solemnly, "I just wish I could go back home… I want things to go back to the way they were… Most of all, I just want Sam back…" Watching his little brother die had scarred him the most out of anything else, and he felt that his death was partially, if not entirely, his fault. "I should've been braver… It was stupid of me to just let childish innocence take over like that…" Milly hated when Sonic talked like that. He didn't even sound like he was eight anymore.

"You can't blame yourself for that," reassured Milly. "It's all those burglars' faults, not yours." Sonic didn't believe him. He wanted to believe him, but… _I know for myself that I wasn't strong enough…_ he thought. He took the last bite of his eggs and finished off his last piece of bacon, and then got up and threw the Styrofoam tray away in the trash. "Milly," he started when he got back. "can you at least stay with me until I have to leave?" Milly mimicked Sonic's trademark thumbs-up and wink as he responded, "Of course. What are friends for?" Unlike he normally would, Sonic didn't smile. Instead, he simply said, "Thanks." To Milly, this was very disheartening. He hadn't seen Sonic smile since that Monday, and he was beginning to miss the heartwarming grin that used to be on his face all the time.

Sonic and Milly walked to Sonic's room, where Sonic grabbed his only remaining belonging: the picture of him and his family. When he looked at it, a slight smile appeared on his face. _At least I got to see him smile…_ thought Milly, but the smile soon disappeared and was replaced by a frown and tears in the hedgehog's eyes. As well as Milly knew what Sonic's smile meant, he also knew what his tears meant. He needed a hug. Milly opened his arms wide, and Sonic almost fell into them.

"I just miss them… so much…" he said quietly through his sobbing. "I want everything to go back to normal… You and me… playing in my backyard… Sam smiling… My parents sitting on the couch together, watching TV… It all just seems like a distant memory… It's like I can see it right in front of me but I can't touch it…" Sonic tightened his embrace, so much so that Milly felt short of breath, but he didn't care right then. He was comforting his best friend.

"All right…" started a nurse who had just walked in, staring at her clipboard. "Ogilvie Maurice the Hedgehog, your uncle is here to pick you—" She looked up from her clipboard and saw Sonic crying into Milly's shoulder. "Is this a bad time? Do you want me to ask him to wait a few minutes?" Sonic sniffled, let go of Milly, and shook his head. "No. If you tell him that, he's just gonna get angry. Let's just go now and get it over with."

Sonic, Milly, and the nurse all walked down to the lobby of the hospital, where Sonic's uncle, Frank, was waiting. He was a brown hedgehog with green eyes, and he was wearing a black t-shirt, a black leather jacket, black fingerless gloves, and faded blue jeans. Honestly, he didn't look like the type of person anyone sensible would want to hang out with. He didn't even look anything like Bernadette, either, with her blue fur and blonde hair. The only thing that was similar was their green eyes. He took a large gulp out of the can of Coke he was holding and looked at Sonic.

"Well, kid, you ready to go?" he asked in a clearly irritated voice. Sonic nodded and turned to Milly. "Bye, Milly. See ya at school on Monday." Even before Milly could nod in reply, Frank grabbed Sonic tightly by the wrist and pulled him out of the hospital. "I didn't even get to say 'bye' back…" moped Milly.

Outside, Frank continued to pull Sonic along with him, but Sonic felt like his wrist was being squeezed off. "Hey, Frank, you're hurting me! Lemme go!" he exclaimed in pain. Frank rolled his eyes and responded, "Yeah, like I care…" as he stopped and looked at Sonic while taking another sip of his Coke. "Look, you little brat, let me lay down some rules. First, you don't tell me what to do. Ever. Whether it's because I'm hurting you or anything, it doesn't matter. Got it?" Sonic nodded. "Second, you don't speak unless spoken to. Third, don't come crying to me about your family's 'oh so sad' death. I don't have time for some whiny kid, and I honestly don't give a damn about anything that happened and I still have my own shithole of a life to worry about.

"Fourth, anything and everything I say past this point goes. If I tell you to get me a beer or a Coke or whatever, you'll get it. Understand all that?" He looked menacingly at Sonic, who was scared beyond all belief. He let out a loud gulping sound and nodded. He was even worse than he expected. They resumed walking on the parking lot for a few seconds before they stopped at an old beat up pickup truck. Frank shoved Sonic straight into the truck's body, and he hit it right in his chest, which made him wince in pain. "Get in the car." Sonic ran his hand over the bandages on his chest to try to dull the pain and obediently opened the passenger side door.

Sonic hopped up into the car and sat on the seat, after which he reached behind him and grabbed the frayed seatbelt, and he buckled himself in, tightening it as much as possible. He didn't think that Frank was going to even be the tiniest bit of a good driver. The two of them sat the bumpy and scary ride home in almost complete silence, except the points when Sonic screamed because they were about to crash. Sonic spent the whole ride praying that he wouldn't die in a crash.

When they arrived at Frank's small house and got out of the truck, Frank slapped Sonic across the face and commanded, "Don't scream when I'm driving! It's distracting, kid!" Sonic thought, _You're already a bad driver…_ but he didn't dare say it out loud. Frank walked up to the door of the house and unlocked it, revealing a pigsty of a house. Sonic actually couldn't even call it a house. It had three rooms, one of which had the kitchen, dining room, and living room all combined in one, with a sheet separating the living room from the dining room and kitchen. The other two rooms were, of course, a bathroom and a bedroom. Inside, it was maybe ten degrees cooler than the ninety degree summer heat outside.

"Dang… This place is a disaster…" mumbled Sonic. "Looks like a tornado made its way through here or something…" However, Frank heard him and lifted him up with one hand by one of the bandages on Sonic's chest. "You wanna say that to my face, kid?" Tears welled up in Sonic's eyes as he shouted, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I didn't mean it! W-what I meant was that this is a very nice house!" A sadistic smirk appeared on Frank's goateed face as he responded, "That's what I thought." Frank absolutely enjoyed being the dominant person. He dropped Sonic onto the ground and took the cushions off one of the couches, and then took out a fold-out bed.

"You'll sleep on this, kid." He picked up a very small and thin blanket, along with a very much flattened couch pillow. "And this is your pillow and blanket. Don't expect anything more than that unless it's winter." Only for a second did Sonic mistake that last sentence for Frank actually caring. He just didn't want to deal with what would happen if Sonic were to die in there. "Well, there's nothing better for me to do, so I might as well go to bed now," said Sonic as he set his picture on the small lampstand next to the couch. However, as Sonic climbed onto the bed, Frank picked him up by one of his quills and said, "No, you're gonna stay up, got it? 'Cause if I need anything, you're gonna get it for me. Speaking of that…" he released Sonic, turned on the TV, and sat on the other couch. "Bring me a beer."

Scared out of his wits by what would probably happen if he didn't, Sonic nodded and ran to the fridge, grabbing a bottle of beer for his angry uncle. It was going to be a long life for Sonic…


	3. Chapter Two

_Okay, thank you to everybody who favorite__d this story or added it to their story alerts! This is the first story that I've gotten that many on, let alone that many within the first day. I received five e-mails about people adding this to their story alerts or favoriting it. Just this story! But I would like to make a request. I would like some reviews from my fellow readers, please. I want to know your reactions to the story. Any and all reviews will be greatly appreciated! Thank you!_

**_VERY IMPORTANT INFORMATION BELOW!  
_**

___There has been a slight change in the timeline. For those of you who have been reading my story since before May 11, 2012, I need to tell you about this. Sonic starts out as eight years old, and Milly is nine. Anyway, happy reading!_  


* * *

Chapter Two

"I'm going to school, Frank. Bye." Sonic was happy to finally be getting out of frank's pigsty, but he was grabbed by his quills as soon as he was about to walk out of the door. _Great…_ thought Sonic. _What does he want now?_ "Get me a Mountain Dew, kid. I need caffeine. Then you can go to your damn school." He dropped Sonic and walked over to the couch, where he sat down and turned on the TV with the remote.

Sonic walked around the sheet separating the living room from the kitchen and opened the fridge, where he saw a plethora of aluminum cans of assorted varieties. He grabbed a Mountain Dew from the top shelf, set it on the counter, got a cup from the cabinet above him, put a few pieces of ice from the freezer in there, and poured the pop in there. Carefully, as not to spill it and make Frank angry at him, he walked the cup out there and slowly set it down on the lampstand next to Frank.

He then rushed out of the still-open door without waiting for even so much as a "thank you". Even from only spending two days with his uncle, Sonic already knew that Sonic didn't say those two words. Or please. Or you're welcome. Heck, the man had no manners whatsoever. Even the bullies at Christmas Island Elementary School were more well-mannered than he was.

Sonic ran as fast as he could away from the house, and while it physically hurt him to do so, he still continued. He only wanted to get away from frank as fast as possible. The poor little hedgehog had gotten into an argument with Frank, and he just happened to be drunk that night, so Sonic didn't come out of that without a few abrasions. He was bruised on almost all of his visible skin and fur, and he had a black eye on his right eye. Unfortunately, Sonic didn't have the courage to tell the police about what happened, because Frank had threatened to kill him if he did, and so the emotional trauma of an abusive relationship began.

When Sonic finally arrived at his school only a minute later, he was ecstatic to see Milly waiting for him outside the building. Sonic slammed into and hugged Milly with so much force that they almost fell to the ground, but Milly regained his balance. "Hey, Sonic… Was it really that bad?" Tears started coming out of Sonic's eyes as he replied, "You have… no… idea…" Several of their classmates and other peers started throwing weird looks at the two of them, but neither Milly nor Sonic paid any attention to them.

"What happened?" asked Milly calmly. Sonic wiped the tears from his face and answered, "I'd rather not talk about it out here… It's just a bit… too much…" Milly nodded his head. He understood what Sonic meant. He wasn't about to hurt his friend more by making him say what happened in front of everyone.

When class started, Sonic, instead of sitting in his normal seat at the front of the classroom, he sat in the seat furthest away from anyone, all the way in the corner. He felt as if losing his parents had alienated him from everyone. He didn't even know why he should feel different from everyone. He just did. At lunch, he sat at a small table with just him, Milly, and their other best friend, Liz, a purple cat.

"What happened, Sonic?" asked Liz. "Why do you look so beat up?" Sonic sighed and waited a few seconds before responding, "Frank, he… He came home drunk last night, and when he stumbled onto the couch, he yelled, 'Get me another beer!' I refused. He needed to sober up. He was slurring his words and stumbling around so badly that you would've sworn he'd been drugged with some kinda crazy drug. After I told him I wouldn't, he got aggressive with me, and all this happened…"

"How could someone treat you like that?" inquired Milly. "How could anyone treat anyone like that? And why in the world would they?" Sonic slowly twirled his spaghetti around his fork. "Beats me… He's just a bitch… That's what he is…" Liz and Milly were really taken aback by what Sonic had just said. Never before in their lives had they heard Sonic say a word like that. "Sonic!" exclaimed Liz. "You realized that you just used one of the coup de grace swearwords, right? What if a teacher were to hear you say that?" Sonic shrugged his shoulders and replied, "I wouldn't care… That's what Frank is…"

Milly rubbed his forehead with his thumb and index finger and sighed. "Why don't you call 9-1-1?" Sonic knew that would be a smart choice, but he was too scared of Frank to do so. "Frank said he'd kill me if I try to tell the police. Literally." This made Liz's eyes widen from surprise and horror. "That's just horrible… Tell the counselor, or actually walk up to the police office after school." Sonic knew he could do that, but he just had this feeling that things wouldn't turn out well for him if he did. "He's enough of a bitch to find out before I even thought about it…"

Milly had about had enough of that word. "Seriously? There are better words out there than that to describe people…" Milly had a tinge of anger in his voice, and with Sonic's spirit reduced from strong to fragile, he spoke back with an even stronger tone of rage as he stood up. "Well there aren't any better words to describe that despicable bastard, Milly! He's a goddamn drunken idiot, he has a shitty house, a shitty life, and hell, he even treats people like shit! He doesn't even give a damn that I just lost my family! I think that word pretty much sums it up!" At this point, everyone in the cafeteria was staring at Sonic. "What are you all looking at, goddammit?" he shouted very angrily.

Then, he collapsed back into his chair and started bawling out of control. Over the past week, Milly had seen Sonic have some mood swings and outbursts, but nothing like this. "I want everything to go back to normal… I want everything to go back to normal…" He kept repeating the phrase over and over, somewhat like a prayer that he wanted answered more than anything else in the world. Luckily for Sonic, there weren't any teachers present until the other children started resuming eating only a second later, so none of them heard his outburst.

Sonic ran as fast as he could out of the cafeteria and into the hallway, where he sat against a wall and let his tears roll down his face. "Why do you have to make my life so miserable, God…? Why do you hate me…?" A reassuring voice came from beside him. "Maybe He's testing you. I don't think He hates you. I guarantee that you've got a greater purpose in life, and He's just trying to get you ready for it." Sometimes, he loved that Liz was a very religious girl. It had sort of been their unspoken pact that, whenever one of them had hard times, the other one would try to cheer them up, although Liz knew she would be the one doing most of the cheering up for the next year.

Liz sat next to him and put her left arm around him. "Y'know, Sonic, you need to go back to being an optimist." Sonic sighed and responded, "Easy for you to say…" A light bulb went off in Liz's head as she said, "Here's something that might cheer you up. We only have a week left of school. Aren't you excited for that?" But this just made Sonic cry more. He thought that school was going to be his escape from Frank, but he only had a week left until the school year was over. "No, Liz… I'm not gonna be able to get away from Frank once school's out… It's gonna be miserable…" Just thinking about it made Sonic even more depressed.

"That didn't work out like I had expected… I don't really know what else to say, but I can say that things will get better with time. Just give it a chance, okay? Now lemme see a smile." Sonic sniffled and nodded, and then smiled at her. He knew she was right, but he also knew that the amount of time that would need to pass for things to get better was tremendous. Liz smiled back and said, "Let's go back into the cafeteria. You still haven't finished your spaghetti." The two of them stood up and walked into the cafeteria, after which everybody stared once again.

"Everyone, please quit staring at him," said the guidance counselor, who was one of the teachers watching over the students in the cafeteria. "He's been through some rough times. We all need to wish him luck, not stare at him." Sonic liked the fact that she didn't blatantly say what happened to him. The students once again resumed their eating, and Sonic and Liz walked over to the table, where Milly was still sitting.

"You okay, Sonic?" asked Milly, obviously concerned about Sonic's condition. Sonic winked at him and gave him a thumbs-up for about the first time in a week. "Yep. Sorry about that outburst there, Milly. I just lost control of myself for a second, but at least for today, the Sonic you know and love is back." Sonic said "at least for today" for a good reason. He wasn't exactly sure how long this burst of happiness he was having was going to last, but he was going to enjoy it while it did.

Sonic finished his spaghetti, and then they were released from the cafeteria for recess, where Sonic, Liz, and Milly all played soccer out on the field. Sonic returned to his normal seat in class, and everything was looking good for the hedgehog until he realized something at the very end of the school day.

"I don't wanna go back there!" he exclaimed as he burst into tears. _So much for the Sonic we know and love…_ thought Milly. "He's gonna make me do everything he says, and if I don't, he's gonna beat me up again, and I don't want that to happen!" Milly sighed and responded, "I'm sorry, Sonic. Really, I am, and I wish there were something I could do… but let's face it, buddy, I don't want you to get hurt even more if any of us decide to try anything stupid. For now, we just need to play it safe. Promise me you'll stay strong, Sonic. And remember, we're gonna see each other tomorrow, anyway. Just keep your hopes up."

The three children engaged in a group hug meant mainly for Sonic, and they continued to embrace for thirty seconds. "Bye, Sonic. See ya tomorrow," said Liz before she waved at Sonic and got in her mother's car. Milly hugged Sonic once more and said, "Bye, Sonic." Milly walked off in the direction of the orphanage, leaving Sonic alone. He didn't want to go back to Frank. Not for his life, but he had to, and instead of running back, he walked at the speed one would normally go.

Within fifty minutes, Sonic arrived at Frank's dilapidated shack, but he didn't see the truck in the driveway. "Thank God!" exclaimed Sonic as loud as he could. "He isn't home… Oh, thank God… Thank you so much, God!" He was unexplainably glad with this turn of events. He used the key that Frank gave him to unlock the door, and he made his way into the house. He set his new backpack by his fold-out bed and plopped down on the bed. It was much too firm, but it still felt good considering how little sleep he had gotten in the past two nights.

Sonic then realized something, however. If Frank wasn't there… "He's out getting drunk… Oh, God, no… I'm doomed…" Happiness soon turned to sorrow as Sonic fully grasped the situation. This was nothing to be happy about. "This is just plain awful… I'd better not say anything to him when he gets back… Then… Then maybe he won't hurt me…" To try and make himself just the slightest bit happier, he grabbed the picture off the lampstand and looked at it. While it reminded him of what happened, it also reminded him of the many good times he had before then.

He smiled, set the picture back on the lampstand, and snuggled into his bed. "May as well get some sleep before he comes home…" He let out a large yawn and closed his eyes, shortly after which he drifted into sleep.

His sleep, however, was not a peaceful one… It was anything but. He was repeatedly shown the horrid scene where his family died, and he wanted so much to wake up from the nightmare, but he wasn't granted such luck. After watching that scene at least seven times, he completely relived the argument he had with Frank the day before.

Frank had just walked into the house, stumbling around, trying to find his way to the couch, and Sonic, who had been restlessly tossing and turning in his bed, only watched as the drunken man tried to get his bearings. Sonic wondered why anyone in their right mind would want to get drunk, but then again, Frank wasn't exactly what you'd call "in his right mind". When the brown hedgehog finally arrived at the couch, he looked at Sonic with an unsteady stare and commanded, "Get me another beer," in a voice that suggested the amount of alcohol in his blood was way past a safe level.

Sonic, unlike Frank, actually had some common sense, and knew that this man didn't need anything else to drink. "No. You need to sober up." When he said that, however, Frank staggered over to him and lifted him up out of the bed by his bandages. "Kid… What did I say yesterday? If I tell you to get me something, you'll get it. Okay?" Sonic had no intention of letting his cause die that easily, though. He shook his head and replied, "No," as strongly as he could.

This course of action had repercussions that Sonic hadn't seen coming. Frank punched him straight in his right eye, which made Sonic immediately cry out in pain and cover that eye with his right hand. Frank dropped the child and started punching him in basically every part of his body, and he continued with this for another fifteen minutes until the blue hedgehog was bruised and battered to Frank's heart's content. "From this moment on, when I tell you to get something, you get it. You are my slave. You do as I say. Understand?" He was talking to Sonic like he was a dog, which made him even angrier, but he didn't dare say anything else, out of fear that he would get punished again. He only nodded, and Frank went to the fridge to get himself his own beer.

When Sonic awoke, gasping for breath, it was late at night, probably around midnight, but Sonic was never woken up before then. He got up from his bed and walked quietly over to Frank's room, where he saw his uncle laying face-down on the bed, drooling and snoring loudly. This earned a small chuckle from Sonic since it looked so awkward, but he made sure the chuckle was quiet enough that Frank had no chance of hearing it, but Sonic was so thankful that nothing happened to him that night. Frank must have come home so drunk that he just stumbled into his bed.

Sonic walked back to his own bed and snuggled back in. When he fell asleep once again, he was greeted with much more peaceful dreams than before. At least he didn't get hurt that night, and he could actually sleep peacefully, but deep down, he knew that there was still worse to come…


	4. Chapter Three

_Thanks to both iammemyself and satheroth335 for reviewing my story! It was very much appreciated! First of all, I'm going to start replying to reviews on all of my stories in each new chapter I post, so here's my first attempt:_

**iammemyself:** Yeah, sorry about all the new characters. I was just trying to outline how different Sonic's life was... so sorry if it got a bit out of hand...  
**satheroth335:** The people who killed them are jerks! You know they're eventually gonna get what they deserve, though.

**_VERY IMPORTANT INFORMATION BELOW!  
_**

___There has been a slight change in the timeline. For those of you who have been reading my story since before May 11, 2012, I need to tell you about this. Sonic starts out as eight years old, and Milly is nine. Anyway, happy reading!_

_Enjoy the next chapter!_

* * *

Chapter Three

Sonic had actually survived more than a whole week with Frank, although he definitely didn't come out of it unscathed. Sonic finally was able to go to the hospital and get the stitches out of his torso on Friday, but he was under directions to keep the bandages on for another full week, something Frank could definitely use to his advantage, but Sonic would rather have his wounds heal than let Frank have one less way to pick him up. However, he also had to get new cuts and bruises taken care of while he was there. He was asked about how those things happened, but he just said that he fell down a flight of concrete stairs a couple days beforehand. "Quite some fall," one of the doctors commented.

Sonic was faced with quite a predicament, however. He had to go through the whole entire summer with Frank telling him everything to do. He wasn't looking forward to that. At all. And he was guessing that what he had seen on Sunday was only the beginning of what would happen if Sonic refused to do something. Luckily for Sonic, however, Frank hadn't been drinking the past two nights, and while he was still mean to Sonic, he wasn't the angry drunk that had beaten him up on Sunday night and the other nights.

At eight o'clock in the morning on Monday, Sonic was sleeping soundly, but he was soon woken up by Frank's yelling. "Get out of bed, you lazy bum!" Sonic sat straight up in his bed, and Frank was on the other couch, drinking a can of Coke. "Time for you to make me breakfast!" Sonic rubbed his eyes and stretched while yawning, and then he got up from his bed and walked into the kitchen. "Gimme three eggs and five strips of bacon, boy!" With how much of a pig he lived like, Sonic expected the man to eat like a pig, too, but luckily for Sonic's workload, he only ate as much as the next guy.

Sonic got three eggs out of the fridge and took the package of precooked bacon out of there as well. He got out a bowl and cracked the three eggs in there, after which he used a fork to whisk them. Sonic then got a skillet out and turned on the stove, where he poured the eggs. He took five strips of bacon out of the package and stuck them on a plate, which he put in the microwave. Within only a few minutes, the breakfast was done, and Sonic brought the plate with both eggs and bacon on it out to Frank along with a fork. For his own breakfast, Sonic just grabbed a package of fudge Pop-Tarts, since Pop-Tarts and cereal were the only things Frank allowed him to eat for breakfast.

_Stupid Frank… I want eggs and bacon, too…_ thought Sonic as he smelled the deliciousness of the cooked food. Without making a sound, before he put the package of bacon away, he took a strip out of it and shoved it in his mouth, after which he quickly put it back in the fridge where it belonged. He savored it before he sat down at the kitchen table and started eating his Pop-Tarts. He never ate in the same room as Frank. He found it scary to even talk to the man, let alone sit near him. Sonic, bored out of his mind, picked up the newspaper from the table, and the front page article caught his attention because of two pictures above it.

"Those burglars… They're the ones who…" he said to himself. He didn't even finish his sentence. It would have been too emotional for him if he had. The pictures were of the two burglars who had burnt down his house. The title of the article read "Two rampant burglars caught and in custody". The article said that the two men would go from house to house, stealing valuable items and committing murder and arson, among other horrendous crimes. As of that newspaper's publication, which was two days before Sonic read it, the men were on death row and scheduled for the next day. This made Sonic let out a long sigh of relief. The burglars got what was coming to them.

"Thank goodness for that…" he said quietly. He didn't want Frank to come even close to hearing anything he said at any time unless it was a reply to something Frank had said, as that was one of Frank's de facto rules. Sonic finished eating his Pop-Tarts in partial happiness, but he still wished that his parents and Sam were alive. "Boy! Come get my plate…! And get me a beer, too!" _No… No, no, no, no! Not a beer… I'm doomed…_

Sonic sighed and walked over to the fridge, where he grabbed a bottle of beer for his uncle. He walked out to the living room, where he took the empty plate and gave the bottle to Frank, after which he quickly ran back into the kitchen. He hated the smell of liquor, and he hated the sight of Frank drinking it even more, because he knew that, within maybe half an hour, Frank would soon turn into that angry drunk that Sonic had a run-in with on Sunday.

In only five minutes, Sonic heard Frank say the words he dreaded even more than "get me a beer". "Get me another beer!" he yelled. "Make that two!" Sonic felt like he was about to cry. It was beginning again. The dreadful experience was once again starting, and there was nothing Sonic could do about it but fuel it, which made him feel less than powerless, if that was even possible. Sonic reluctantly opened the fridge once again and grabbed another two bottles, which he quickly brought out to Frank.

"You'd better not refuse to get me a drink again, boy…" started Frank before he opened the bottle, letting even more of the awful odor of liquor into the air. "If you do, you're in for more of a beating than even on Sunday. You got that, kid?" Sonic obediently nodded, holding back the tears that were going to inevitably fall. He ran back into the kitchen, and after he did, Frank turned the TV up, and it was loud enough that Sonic could actually let his tears out.

"No matter how drunk he gets, I've gotta give him his drink…" Sonic told himself. He couldn't refuse again. After a few minutes of crying, Sonic heard Frank say, "Hey, boy! I just remembered I'm out of Coke! Go buy me some!" Sonic sighed in relief as he realized that this was his ticket out of there for the time being. He walked out to the living room, where Frank shoved a twenty-dollar bill in Sonic's hand. After that, Sonic said, "I'll get your Coke and be back in an hour." Sonic hadn't quite told Frank about his super speed, so the time of an hour actually seemed plausible to Frank.

"If you're not back by then, I'll make sure you won't see daylight for at least a day." That meant that he'd beat him up so badly that he wouldn't wake up for a whole day. That wasn't something Sonic wanted to happen. Sonic nodded and walked out the front door, closing it behind him. He ran off as fast as he could in the direction of the orphanage, where he was going to visit Milly.

When he arrived at the orphanage, he knocked on the door, and he heard coming from inside, "Could you please get that, Vermillion? I have my hands full right now." That was the director of the orphanage, and Sonic could tell just from how she called Milly "Vermillion". She had never become very fond of the raccoon's nickname, or anybody's nickname for that matter. Milly opened the door, and he smiled when he saw who was there. "Sonic! What a surprise! Really! Come on in! Mrs. Mutti said that, after what happened, you're welcome here anytime." Mrs. Mutti was the orphanage director, the same one that had asked Milly to get the door.

Sonic walked in and said to Milly, "I can only stay here for about forty minutes, though. I've gotta get Frank some Coke from the store within the next hour." Sonic's eyes widened as he fully processed what Milly had said at the door. "Wait!" he whispered frantically. "You didn't tell Mrs. Mutti about Frank, right?" Milly shook his head and whispered back, "Of course not. I told you I'd play it safe." After that, Mrs. Mutti herself walked into the main room of the orphanage, where Sonic and Milly were standing. She was a stout female human, about five-foot-four, and she had light brown hair and glasses. However, she was by no means an old woman, as some stereotypical orphanage ladies are depicted. She was only about in her late thirties.

"Oh, Ogilvie! How nice to see you!" She scanned him as she always did, upon which she noticed the cuts and bruises all over the hedgehog's body. "Oh, my! How did all that happen?" Sonic scratched the back of his head, trying to appear as modest as possible as he replied, "Heh. I just took a tumble down the stairs at school. It was no big deal." Mrs. Mutti raised an inquisitive eyebrow. "That's what the bandages are for, too?" she asked.

"N-no…" stuttered Sonic. "Those… Th-th-those are from… They're from…" Sonic couldn't say it. He couldn't say what had happened. To keep him from having to force it out, Milly whispered to Mrs. Mutti so Sonic couldn't hear, "Those are for his injuries from when his family died…" Mrs. Mutti nodded and said, "I see… Well, you two boys have fun, now! It's time for breakfast for the little ones, so I must be going now. It was nice to see you, Ogilvie."

Sonic rolled his eyes once she left and said, "I hate how she still calls me Ogilvie after all this time." Milly chuckled and responded, "How do you think I feel? I live with her and she still doesn't call me Milly. I still can't believe Vermillion was the best name my parents could come up with when they left me on the porch of this place." They both chuckled, and then they went upstairs to the children's entertainment room, where all of the older orphans, about seven of them, gathered during the day. When they saw Sonic, they all got excited, since Sonic and Liz were the only people who would visit the orphanage on a regular basis.

"How's it going, Sonic?" asked one of the orphans. "How are the cuts healing?" asked another. Sonic was being stormed with questions, most of which he answered with a "good" or "fine". "Okay, guys, settle down," said Milly with a smile on his face. Milly was like an older brother figure to most of the orphans since he was the oldest one there, and everyone gladly listened to him, especially when he had something important to say. All of the orphans quieted down, and Milly spoke to Sonic. "Okay, Sonic, I have something to tell you. I know I said I'd play it safe, but, and everyone here is sworn to secrecy, I told them about Frank."

Sonic was about to freak out on Milly when the raccoon continued, "I did that so you'd have more than just me and Liz if you ever needed a shoulder to cry on… Not literally of course… I'm about the only one whose shoulder you can actually cry on, but either way, we're all here for you. You have our full support, buddy." Sonic, who was angry only moments ago, was now touched. He had a whole group of people who cared about him, and they would help him if he ever needed it. There weren't enough words in the dictionary for Sonic to thank Milly, so he just hugged him and started crying tears of joy.

"Thank you, Milly," he finally said after five seconds. "You have no idea what this means to me." Milly smiled and responded, "Actually, I do, or I wouldn't have done it for you." They released each other, and Milly said, "Okay, so who wants to help him right now by playing some Melee with him?" Almost all of the children immediately started saying, "Me, me, me, me, me!" And with that, Sonic, Milly, and all of the other children gathered around the TV.

After half an hour of playing, Sonic had to unfortunately leave. "Why do you have to go, Sonic? Can't you stay longer?" asked one of the younger boys. Sonic shook his head and answered, "If I'm not back home in twenty minutes, Frank's gonna beat me up. I really wish I could stay here longer, but I just can't." Before Sonic walked downstairs with Milly, all the children said the word "bye" in unison. "Well, see ya, Sonic," Milly sadly said at the front door. They hugged each other one more time, and once they released each other, Sonic said, "I'll try to come by as often as I can. Thanks so much for that, Milly. Knowing I have that many people willing to help… It makes me feel a lot better. I'll try to persuade Frank that it's gonna take longer than this to get whatever he needs next."

They waved good-bye to each other as Sonic walked out the door and ran in the direction of the grocery store. When he arrived at the store, he ran back to the aisle where the pop was kept and grabbed two twelve-packs of Coke. He took them up to the cash register, where they rang up at sixteen dollars. Sonic, since he wasn't allowed to have much at Frank's house, bought a Hershey's bar for an extra dollar, and he was just going to tell Frank that the pop had cost seventeen dollars. He walked the pop and the chocolate bar outside, after which he set the two cases of pop down and quickly ate the chocolate so he wouldn't be seen with it when he got back to Frank's. It tasted so good that he wanted another, but he knew that he wouldn't have enough time to eat another one and still get back in time.

He grabbed both cases of pop off the ground and ran toward Frank's house. When he arrived, he opened the front door to see a woozy Frank sitting on the couch in almost the exact same position he was when he left. He walked through the living room, around the sheet, and into the kitchen, where he put the cans of Coke in the fridge. When he was done, he sat at the kitchen table for a few minutes before Frank commanded, "Another beer!" while slurring his words a lot. Sonic once again reluctantly got up and grabbed his uncle yet another beer. He gave the beer to Frank, and after he did, he summoned up the courage to ask, "H-h-h-how many have you had? I'm not trying to refuse or anything. I'm just curious."

Frank opened up the bottle and took a big gulp out of it before responding, "This is my… fifth one…" Sonic's eyes widened at the sheer amount of alcohol the man had consumed. He drank four whole twenty-ounce bottles in an hour? That didn't even seem right to Sonic. "Holy crap…" said Sonic under his breath. "You drink way too much…" However, Frank had heard this, and he set his drink down on the lampstand before kicking Sonic straight in the face, sending the blue hedgehog flying backward with a yelp of pain.

"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to say that, Frank!" exclaimed Sonic, trying to save himself from what was inevitable. Frank menacingly walked up to him and said, "Well you shouldn't have said it, then, because you're in for a world of hurt, bitch!" He took a knife out of his pocket and slashed at Sonic's face, drawing blood from his cheek and lips, and the child let out another agonized cry. Satisfied with the amount of blood, but not the amount of bruises, Frank put the pocket knife back and started to beat the kid with his fists.

By the time he was done, Sonic's face and some of his torso, along with his hands, were smeared with blood, and Sonic himself was nothing more than a whimpering and bruised child on the ground. He was curled up in a fetal position, doing nothing but crying. "That's better…" said Frank as he walked over to the front door. "I'm going to work, kid, and you'd better behave when I get back if you know what's good for you." He walked out the door, leaving only Sonic in the house. "Why did I have to say that…?" Sonic asked himself. He had no good answer for himself, only that Frank was getting progressively worse.

He painfully stood up and grabbed the picture from his lampstand. "Mommy… Daddy… I wish you were here right now…" He set the picture down and walked over to the bathroom, where he took off his bandages, climbed in the shower, and turned on the warm water. While it stung, it was at least washing the blood off. He washed off, dried off, and wrapped his bandages back up on himself, after which he noticed that the gash on his face still hadn't stopped bleeding. He ripped off a piece of his bandages and applied it to his face with tape. He couldn't very well say anything while the bandage was over his mouth, but he knew that was for the better.

He walked out to his bed and got in it, because even though it was only nine thirty, he was going to need as much sleep as possible…


	5. Chapter Four

_Yet another chapter of this fanfic... I've never written this much in such a short time! (I'm talking about this whole story, not the chapter itself.) Anyway, here are the replies to the reviews:_

**iammemyself:** I know... Frank's crazy like that, though... Anyway, whether Frank got into an accident or not, you'll have to see in this chapter.  
**satheroth335:** Frank does need to die, but unfortunately, for the story to progress, he can't die for another few chapters... I wish I could make him die now, but then where would the story go?

**_VERY IMPORTANT INFORMATION BELOW!  
_**

_There has been a slight change in the timeline. For those of you who have been reading my story since before May 11, 2012, I need to tell you about this. Sonic starts out as eight years old, and Milly is nine. Anyway, happy reading!_

* * *

Chapter Four

"Kid, wake up! I need my breakfast!" Sonic always hated that wakeup call, but he sat up and yelled, "Don't worry! I'll get up and make your damn breakfast, Frank! Jeez!" Sonic got out of his bed and walked into the kitchen, after which Frank said, "I want some sausage this morning! Make me a sausage and egg muffin!" Sonic rolled his eyes and responded, "Sausage and egg muffin, coming up…"

Having spent a year and three months with him, Sonic had learned how to talk around Frank without getting the man mad, but it was so annoying. However, that doesn't mean Sonic wasn't still abused. At least twice a week, he would somehow irritate Frank enough for him to beat him up. By now, though, Sonic could take a decent amount of pain and still be all right.

Since the sausage was raw, this breakfast took him a full fifteen minutes to make, which wasn't long compared to some dinners that Frank wanted, but it was still time-consuming. When he was done, he put the sandwich on the plate and walked it out to his hungry uncle, who took it with no hesitation. Sonic walked back into the kitchen, this time grabbing himself a package of cherry Pop-Tarts. He sat down at the kitchen table and quickly ate the two pastries. Sonic was depressed that it wasn't a school day, as he always was on every day that was either a weekend or a day off. That day just happened to be a Saturday…

For Sonic, though, depression was a matter of degrees. On normal days, it was moderate. On days when he could visit the friendly orphans or go to school, it was usually light. However, on days when he was abused by Frank, his depression hit very heavy levels, even to the point where he would yell at any and everything, animate or not. Some days, he would even yell at God, swearing Him out and asking Him why He didn't love him. If he could afford it, he would probably be taking anti-depressants right now. Milly said he hated to see Sonic like that, but the blue hedgehog couldn't help himself.

Yet, there were a couple good things that had happened in the past few months. For instance, on the one day when Frank had five beers at once, he got into a car crash and wrecked his truck and himself. He had a broken arm and leg, and he had to stay in the hospital for a whole entire week, and Sonic had to do absolutely nothing to help him. Once the man got home, though, as far as the amount of work Frank made Sonic do, things got way worse for about a month. Sonic didn't know if it was even physically possible, but Frank was still able to beat him up, even with the casts on his arm and leg.

This day, however, he was thinking much darker thoughts than even yelling at God. _I should just die… It'd be better to do so than to just go on…_ What had triggered this thought was a fight he had gotten into with Frank the night before…

Frank had come home drunk once again, but this time, Sonic hadn't expected him to be home so early, and he was watching TV, which he absolutely was not supposed to do. "Frank!" he exclaimed in worry. "This isn't what it looks like! I swear!" However, Frank wasn't about to believe him. He ran over to Sonic and punched him as hard as he could in the stomach. "You insolent bitch! What did I tell you?" Sonic looked up at him, just barely fazed by the punch delivered to him, and said, "You told me not to watch TV…"

Frank punched him across the face and replied, "That's right!" He pulled Sonic onto the ground and started punching him like always until he stabbed the boy in the arm with his pocket knife, which made Sonic let out a scream of pain as the sharp metal drove past his skin and muscles and straight to his bone. "You know, kid, both of our lives would be easier if you were to just plain die! But I can't kill you; otherwise I'd get arrested, so it looks like we're at a stalemate right now!" He took the knife out of Sonic's arm, which made the suffering hedgehog utter another cry of pain…

Sonic was still pondering what he had said. He looked at his arm, wishing that losing blood from that stab wound alone could make him die, but there was no such luck granted to him. Sonic knew that, at his age, he shouldn't be thinking about that kind of thing, but he had to face it… _My life's a shithole…_ he thought. _And there's nothing Milly or Liz can say that'll make me think otherwise…_ What was both a good thing and a bad thing about Sonic was that, once he got his mid set on something, it was almost impossible to make him think anything else or try a different approach.

"Wait a second…" said Sonic quietly. "Today's my tenth birthday, isn't it?" Sonic wasn't really that excited for it. He just needed something better to think about than his life being garbage, and he also wanted an excuse to see Milly and Liz. He immediately looked in the fridge to see if there was anything that could get him out of the house that day, and he soon enough saw his ticket out. "Frank, you're out of Mountain Dew!" He heard Frank sigh and reply, "Well go get some. My God, are you that stupid, kid?"

Sonic walked out of the kitchen and into the living room, where Frank once again slapped a twenty-dollar bill into his hand. "I'll be back in an hour and a half," he said before he walked out the front door and dashed away after he closed it. Sonic had begun to tell Frank that it was getting hard to keep up when he only had an hour, and at first, Frank had gotten very angry, but he soon allowed Sonic to have half an hour of extra time, although it took a lot of convincing.

Within only thirty seconds, Sonic arrived at the orphanage, where there was a sign on the door that had Milly's handwriting on it. "Come on in, Sonic," it said. Sonic raised a curious eyebrow at the sign but paid it relatively no heed. He walked into the orphanage, and all the lights were off, which was rare indeed. He walked upstairs to the entertainment room and found that no one was there. This was beginning to get very eerie.

"SURPRISE!" yelled several people at the top of their lungs, and Sonic was startled enough that he fell right on his butt. All of the orphans that knew about Frank popped out of little hiding places around the room, along with Liz and Milly. "Happy birthday, Sonic!" And with that exclamation, Sonic was all of a sudden not focused on whether he should die or not, but he realized that today was supposed to be a happy day. He had expected Milly and Liz to remember, but it was still nice of them to do this for him.

Milly and Liz walked over to him and helped him up off the ground. Sonic was literally stunned speechless, but after he was helped up, he finally managed to get out an "Aww… You… You guys… You sh—" However, before Sonic could say what he wanted to, Liz interrupted him with, "You'd better not say that we shouldn't have, because, first of all, we should have. We figured it would be a nice little way for you to get your mind off things, at least for as long as you can stay here.

Sonic didn't know what to say other than, "Thank you." Milly smiled and responded, "You're welcome, buddy, and happy tenth birthday. You're finally in double digits, my friend! And here's my present to you. I know it's not really that much of a present, but I know you haven't had one in a while." He grabbed a plate off the small table next to him, and it was covered with a lid. He handed the plate to Sonic, who opened it and saw one of the most delectable things in the world. "This… This is a… a…"

"Yup!" exclaimed Milly. On the plate was none other than a chili dog, and Sonic almost immediately took a large bite out of it. "Oh, my gosh! This tastes so good! I haven't had one since the incident! Thank you so much, Milly!" He set the plate down and gave his best friend a hug. "No problem. Anything for my best bud!" was Milly's reply. However, that was when Milly noticed the blood-stained napkin taped to Sonic's right arm. He pointed to it and asked, "What happened there?"

Sonic picked up his chili dog and started eating it again before answering, "I got into another argument with Frank. I was watching TV, and he caught me. Eventually, while he was beating me up, he stabbed me in the arm." Sonic had said that like it was nothing, because with all of the things that could have happened, it really was nothing. The hedgehog stuffed the rest of his chili dog into his mouth before Liz said, "That man's cruelty knows no bounds…" She looked like she was about ready to punch somebody in the face.

"Don't worry about it, Liz…" said Sonic. "I've had enough of him, too, but there's nothing we can do about it." Liz decided to just let her rage go for right now. It was Sonic's birthday party; it was supposed to be happy. Sonic, however, was still anything but happy. While he really was touched by Milly and Liz's gesture, he just couldn't get his mind off of what Frank had said the night beforehand.

After playing around for about half an hour, Sonic finally said to his friends, "Hey, guys, I have something important to ask you…" He noticed almost everybody staring at him. "Alone…" Milly nodded, and the three of them walked over to Milly's room and closed the door. "What's up, Sonic?" asked Milly. Sonic had to work up some courage to ask this question, especially since he was asking his best friends. "Do you guys think… everyone'd be better off if I were to die? Should I just kill myself and get it over with…?"

"S-S-S… Sonic…" stuttered Milly. He had heard Sonic say some depressing things, but now he was saying that it would be better for everybody for him to commit suicide. "Why would you think something like that? You're ten years old! You shouldn't be thinking about that stuff!" Tears were coming out of Sonic's eyes as he replied, "But Frank said that both of our lives would be better if I were to die…" Milly put both of his hands on both of Sonic's shoulders as he responded, "I don't care what Frank said! Frank doesn't matter! He's just some lowlife who enjoys watching you suffer! Worry more about what your friends say! Liz and I say that things would only get worse! Right, Liz?" Liz nodded.

"We care about you, Sonic! Do you think Frank does? At all? No! I hate to say this, Sonic, but… Quit your whining! You're gonna make it through this! We're all here for you, remember?" Milly was actually angry at Sonic for saying those words. He didn't care what was going on with Frank. Suicide was not a solution to anything. "Promise me you'll never say that again…" But Sonic couldn't make false promises, so he shook his head. "I can't make a promise I can't keep, Milly. You know that, but that doesn't mean I'm not sorry for saying it… I really am sorry for saying that. It's just that…"

Milly sighed and said, "I know… I know… Let's just try to enjoy the rest of this party, okay?" Sonic nodded, and the three children walked back out to the entertainment room, where everyone once again stared at them. "Are you okay?" asked one of the orphans. Another one looked at them worriedly and said, "We heard yelling…" Sonic tried his best to smile as he replied, "I'm fine, guys. There's nothing to worry about." And with that, the party resumed, and Sonic tried his best to enjoy the rest of it.

When he eventually had to leave, he said his good-byes to the orphans, and then at the door, he hugged both Milly and Liz. "Bye, Sonic," said Milly. "And please, don't even think about that kind of thing again, okay?" Sonic knew what he was referring to, and while he knew how sensitive Milly was to that type of thing, he again couldn't make any promises. "I'll try." He said good-bye to Liz as well, and then ran off to the grocery store.

"Do you think he's gonna be okay, Milly?" asked Liz once the blue hedgehog was long gone. Milly could feel tears coming out of his eyes as he answered, "I don't think so, actually. I wanna believe that he will, but for some reason, I just have this feeling that he's gonna try something really stupid one of these days…"

Meanwhile, Sonic arrived at the grocery store and grabbed two cases of Mountain Dew from the pop aisle, after which he quickly ran up to the register and paid for them. This time, he wasn't in the mood to get a piece of candy, though. He just took the pop and ran back to Frank's, and luckily for him, when he got there, Frank wasn't drunk. Instead, he was sitting on the couch, drinking a Coke. "You're back… Put the Mountain Dew in the fridge, kid." Sonic did as he was told, and when he got back out to the living room, Frank was leaving for work. "If I catch you watching TV again, boy, you're gonna wish you weren't alive. Got it?" Sonic nodded, and Frank walked out the door, after which Sonic released a sigh of relief.

When he heard the truck pull out of the driveway, Sonic went into the bathroom so he could take a shower. This was really the only time he was able to, as Frank wouldn't let him while he was home. He said it was too loud and distracting while he was trying to focus on his TV show. Sonic took the napkin off his arm, after which he stepped into the shower and let the warm water fall on his body. As the water fell on his injury, he winced in pain, but got better until he had to rub soap on it, and that's when he felt even worse than when he had gotten stabbed in the first place.

After Sonic had washed up, he got out of the shower and dried himself off, being careful not to rub too hard on the wound. After that, he grabbed his backpack from the side of his bed, took it with him into the kitchen, and settled down at the table. He took his English book out and started working on his homework. At least this would keep his mind off of things for the time being…

* * *

_You might want to emotionally prepare yourselves for the next chapter... It's not by any means a happy one... Writing stories like this can be so depressing sometimes, you know?_


	6. Chapter Five

_Whew! That was the longest chapter I've written yet in here! Sorry I didn't update last night, but on weekdays, I'll probably update less often anyway... (Stupid school...__) Okay, for those of you who are also interested in my other stories and or currently reading them, they are not abandoned. I know I haven't updated them in a while, but I need to finish writing this one first, so please stay with me! Anyway, on with the replies!_

**satheroth335: **Don't worry. Eggman, or Ro-butt-nik (still love that nickname), will be in here soon enough, although it probably won't be for another few chapters.  
**iammemyself:** Yes, Frank actually got into an accident... He has absolutely no common sense.

**_VERY IMPORTANT INFORMATION BELOW!  
_**

___There has been a slight change in the timeline. For those of you who have been reading my story since before May 11, 2012, I need to tell you about this. Sonic starts out as eight years old, and Milly is nine. Instead of spending only three months with Frank, Sonic spends a year and three months, so he's still ten years old in chapters four, five, six, and seven. I don't really know why I wanted to change the timeline, but I did. Anyway, happy reading!_

_Enjoy the chapter!_

* * *

Chapter Five

Sonic woke up the very next morning to not Frank's yelling, but to the sound of the brown hedgehog stumbling in through the door. Sonic looked at the wall clock, and it said eleven fifteen. _Wow… Frank must've actually gotten off his lazy butt and made himself breakfast._ As Frank made his way to the couch, he was saying countless vulgarities under his breath. He was sure mad at something, but whatever it was, Sonic didn't want to find out. Last time he tried to find out what the man was angry at, it didn't end well for him.

However, that's when Sonic realized that he wasn't heading over to the couch. He was heading toward Sonic. Frank was angry at him! Sonic tried to get up and run, but Frank pulled him down onto the ground by his arm, and his left upper arm scraped against the metal on the bed, and he started bleeding from there. "I just heard something very interesting from one of my acquaintances… You lied to me, you bitch." Sonic was then met with a boot to his face before Frank continued.

"Apparently, you can run much faster than any normal person, and you've been using that to your advantage." He kicked Sonic in the temple so hard that it made him bleed there, and he began to get a headache. The scariest part about this for Sonic was that Frank was actually sober, not drunk like he usually was when he was angry. "I'll make sure… your life… is miserable as HELL!" Sonic had been hoping this whole entire time that Frank didn't find out, but now… his life was basically ruined. "From now on, you don't go to school! You don't go to buy me things! You don't leave this house! And every time you mess up on any miniscule thing, you'll get punished!"

Sonic's life was now officially ruined. "At least let me go to school! I promise I'll be back in a Sonic second after it ends!" That was not something Frank wanted to do, but if he didn't, he'd be arrested for keeping the kid away from school, as it was law on Christmas Island that children had to go to school until they were eighteen. "Then again, I'd get in trouble if I kept you from school… You have to be back home right after it ends, or you're in for a beating! Now let's continue, shall we!" There was a tinge of insanity in the brown hedgehog's voice.

And then, Sonic had to undergo what was easily the worst beating he had ever received. By the time Frank was done, Sonic was bleeding in several spots on his body, staining much of his blue fur red and smearing a lot of his skin with blood. Almost all of his skin was bruised, and he was crying up a storm on the ground. "I'm sorry… I'm sorry… I'm sorry…" Sonic kept apologizing to his angry uncle, but it was of no avail. "Sorry won't cut it, kid! You really should just die. Go and kill yourself why don't you?"

Then, Frank walked out the door saying, "I'm gonna go get drunk. You'd better not go anywhere or disobey any of my rules." He didn't even wait for a reply before he closed the door behind him. Sonic quickly got up and rushed into the shower, washing off as much blood as possible, although there was still some left over, and many of the cuts were still bleeding. "I should just go and kill myself…" He knew Frank probably wasn't serious about that, but he was more than depressed enough to take what he said seriously.

He walked over to his backpack, took his notebook and a pen out, ripped a piece of paper out, and started to write on it. When he was finished, he found a piece of tape and put it on the top of the paper. "I'm sorry, Milly…" He grabbed the piece of paper and something he could use in case something went wrong, and then ran out the door and toward the orphanage. The moment he arrived, he taped the note to the door, knocked, and ran off as fast as he could.

Inside the orphanage, Milly just happened to be passing by the front door when he heard a knock. "Must be Sonic," he said to himself. He opened the door, and instead of seeing Sonic, he saw only a piece of paper taped to the inside of the screen door. He took the paper off and started reading the message.

* * *

Dear Milly,

I'm sorry about this, but I've made my decision. Don't try to stop me. I'm going to jump off the tallest building downtown. Bye, buddy.

Love,  
Sonic

* * *

Milly just stared at the message, his hands shaking as he felt tears coming. "That… That idiot…" He looked out the still-open door and yelled in the direction of downtown, "You're a damn idiot, Sonic!" Mrs. Mutti had heard his yelling and came rushing downstairs. "Vermillion, honey, what's wrong?" Milly handed Mrs. Mutti the note and replied, "That's what's wrong… I'm gonna try and stop him." He ran out the door and shouted to Sonic, "Don't jump, you dummie!"

By the time Mrs. Mutti had read the note and processed everything, Milly was already halfway down the block. "Vermillion! Come back!" Milly turned his head and responded, "No! Ground me later if you want, but I have to stop Sonic!" Mrs. Mutti sighed and thought, _That boy is so rash sometimes, but at least that's better than if he were one of those kids that would just sit around right now. I just hope he can convince Ogilvie._ She closed the door and walked back up to the other kids.

At the same time, Sonic had arrived at the building. Luckily for Sonic, the building was public, and so he walked around the first floor until he found a stairway with roof access. He walked up the stairs instead of running because he wanted to be exhausted by the time he got to the top of the twenty-story building. Eventually, he made it to the top, after which he took a deep breath of the higher-altitude air. "It feels so nice up here… The wind blowing on me… The sun shining on my face…"

Sonic took a few steps until he was standing on the edge of the building, looking down at the city. "Mom, Dad, Sam… I'm coming… to live with you guys in heaven… And God… I sure hope you can forgive me for this…" Sonic tried to step of the building while his eyes were closed, but he felt like some kind of invisible force was keeping his legs from moving. "C'mon… Jump…" he told himself, but his legs wouldn't move. He was paralyzed by fear. Deep down, he didn't want to do this, but he kept on thinking everything would be better if he did. "I shouldn't be scared. I need to do this. C'mon, Sonic… Just pretend you're jumping down from the playground at school…"

When Sonic was about to jump, he heard the door behind him open, and a very familiar voice yelled, "Sonic, don't do it!" Sonic sighed as he realized who it was. "Hey, Milly…" he said calmly. "I told you that you can't stop me… so just give up…" But Milly wasn't about to give up on his best friend. No matter what, he was going to convince Sonic not to jump. "What's wrong with you, Sonic? This is absolutely crazy! Killing yourself isn't gonna solve anything!"

No longer calm, as his mood swings had taken over, Sonic turned around and responded, "But it will, Milly! Every problem I have… A lot of problems you and Liz have… The problems my counselor has… They'll all be solved by this!" Milly shook his head. "No, Sonic! Our problems would only get worse! It may be true that every problem of yours would be solved by this, but you still have your whole life ahead of you! You don't know if things might get better!"

"But that's the key word, Milly! Might! Not will! What if I live the rest of my life as Frank's slave?"

"But you don't know if you will!"

"Stop trying so hard to stop me, Milly!"

"I'm not leaving until you don't jump off!"

Sonic turned back around to once again face off the edge of the building. "Then I guess you're never leaving, because I'm gonna jump! One!" Milly couldn't believe what he was hearing. His best friend was going to commit suicide right in front of him. "No!" he exclaimed. Sonic ignored him and continued counting, "Two!" Milly started running toward Sonic. "Three!" Sonic jumped off the building and closed his eyes, and for a second, he felt the wind rushing up against him until he felt someone grab him by the arm. Even without opening his eyes, he knew it was Milly.

"Let go of me, Milly! Just let me die!" He opened his eyes and looked up at the vermillion raccoon with tears in his eyes. Milly had tears in his eyes as well as he replied, "No! Nothing you say will make me let go!" Sonic started struggling and flailing around as he shouted, "Just let me go! My life is shit, and I want it to be over!" Milly shook his head as he started to try to pull Sonic up. "No matter how much you struggle, I'm not gonna let go! No matter how much easier you think things would be for everybody, I'm not gonna let go! I won't let go! Not for my life!"

"But I want the suffering to end, Milly… I'm tired of dealing with Frank… And if I go back home after this… he's just gonna beat me up…" Milly's adrenaline began pumping as he began to feel Sonic's arm slipping out of his grasp. He pulled harder, and eventually, he pulled Sonic up and over the ledge, and back onto the building. Sonic stood up, and the two children stared at each other for about a minute before Milly felt something hit him in the face, and he got knocked to the ground. He didn't realize until a few seconds later that what hit him was Sonic's fist. "Why the hell did you pull me back up? I just wanted all of the pain to end, Milly! Since you won't let me jump, then I guess I'll just have to do it the hard way!"

Sonic reached into his quills and pulled out a pocket knife. "No!" exclaimed Milly worriedly. "Sonic, why? This won't make anything better! I know it seems like things won't get better, but everything gets better with time!" Sonic opened the pocket knife and aimed it at his heart. "Bye, Milly." But Milly wasn't about to let him do that. He grabbed Sonic's arm and pulled as hard as he could, trying to keep the hedgehog from plunging the knife into his chest.

"Stop! Let me do this!" yelled Sonic. However, as the two boys fought, Sonic made a move to try and get out of Milly's grasp. He was successful, but not for the reasons he thought he was. He thought he had just twisted free of the grasp, but instead, he saw a large gash running from Milly's left palm all the way up to his elbow, and it was bleeding excessively. Sonic dropped the knife as he realized what he did. "M-Milly! Are you okay?" Sonic had finally come back to his senses.

He tried to reach out to Milly and help staunch the blood flow, but the crying raccoon backed away from him. "Don't touch me!" Milly continued to back away as Sonic said, "I'm sorry, Milly! I didn't know what I was doing! I'm so sorry! Please… let me help!" Milly stopped backing away, and at first winced when Sonic reached out, but he let the hedgehog help him. "I think you cut my artery… This hurts… a lot…" No matter how much pressure either Milly or Sonic applied, the cut wouldn't stop bleeding. "We need to get you to the hospital." Milly nodded, and the two children stood up.

They walked down the stairs, being careful to cover as much of the wound as possible. Milly was losing a lot of blood, though, and he was beginning to get disoriented. Sonic noticed he was starting to take one step at a time. "Just a bit further, so hang in there. Don't faint on me, buddy." Sonic opened the door and immediately asked everyone there, "Does anyone know first aid? He's bleeding badly." A male human who looked in about his thirties replied, "I do. Someone call 9-1-1. This kid's going to need some medical attention. He's losing a lot of blood and fast."

He walked over to the two kids and asked no one in particular, "Does anyone have anything I could use as a bandage?" The janitor just happened to be walking by when he asked that. "I've some paper towels." The man nodded, and the janitor handed him a roll of paper towels. As he wrapped the paper towels around Milly's arm, he asked, "So, what are your guys' names?" Sonic pointed toward himself and answered, "I'm Sonic, and that's—" Milly interrupted him with a weak, "Milly. My name's Milly." He sounded like he was about to go unconscious. Sonic looked back into the stairwell, and he could see a large trail of blood coming down the stairs.

"What have I done…?" Sonic asked himself quietly. "I hurt Milly trying to do something that stupid… I'm a terrible friend…" The man finished wrapping several layers of paper towels on Milly's arm and requested, "Could you help me put pressure on there, Sonic?" Sonic nodded, and he squeezed on Milly's arm, after which Milly responded to Sonic's earlier statement, "You're not a terrible friend, Sonic. A terrible friend wouldn't be helping me right now. What you did up there was stupid, but you're helping now, and that's what counts." Sonic was surprised Milly hadn't fainted yet. It had already been several minutes.

However, it seemed like Sonic's thinking that had jinxed it, because Milly slowly started to get tunnel vision, and he eventually lost consciousness. Within only seconds after that, a small rescue team arrived and took the raccoon out of the building and down to the ambulance. "Thanks for your help, mister," said Sonic as he ran down the stairs with only one thought on his mind, _I'm sorry, Milly…_

He ran as fast as possible to the orphanage, where he frantically knocked on the door. "Oh, Ogilvie!" exclaimed Mrs. Mutti as she opened the door. "You're okay! Where's Vermillion?" She then noticed Sonic's wide and sad eyes. "That's the problem, Mrs. Mutti! Milly's hurt! Bad! He's in the hospital right now! You need to get over there!" Mrs. Mutti shook her head. "I have to take care of the other orphans. If he's in the hospital, I think it'd be better for you to see him than me. What happened?" Sonic sighed and asked, "Did Milly show you the note?" She nodded, and Sonic continued, "While I was trying a "backup plan", I ended up slicing Milly's wrist on accident… I'm just so, so sorry for trying this… I hope you can forgive me…"

Without even waiting for a reply, Sonic ran off in the direction of the hospital. "If you're that worried about him," started Mrs. Mutti to herself. "then I forgive you." As Sonic ran, he also spoke to himself. "I don't care what Frank's gonna do to me when I get home; I've just gotta make sure Milly's okay!" Within only a minute, he arrived at the hospital, and only a second later, the ambulance arrived, and he saw Milly on the gurney, still passed out, but his arm was wrapped in an actual bandage rather than paper towels.

"How is he?" asked Sonic to one of the people from the rescue team, and he replied, "Well, he's going to probably need blood, but once we can stitch the cut closed and give him the blood, he'll be fine." Sonic let out a sigh of relief but inquired, "Can I come up? I need to see that he's okay." The young man nodded, and then Sonic ran after the gurney and followed the one person who was pushing Milly.

When they were up in the room, one person started to stitch Milly's arm up while another went to check if they had any A- blood. When the person got back, however, there was a look of worry on her face. "We don't have any A-negative blood or O blood!" The man who was stitching Milly's cut closed let out a long sigh and closed his eyes, but Sonic remembered something. "I have A-negative blood. I could give some." The woman raised an inquisitive eyebrow and said, "But you're only a child…"

Sonic hated when he was treated like a child. "I don't care. My friend's in trouble, and I'm gonna help him, because judging by your reactions earlier, no one else in here has A-negative blood. Give me one of those forms or whatever that you need me to fill out." Sonic was definitely an assertive boy. The woman walked out of the room, and within about thirty seconds, she walked back in with a clipboard and a pen.

Sonic filled out every piece of information he could; he even put Frank as his guardian, although he did so very reluctantly. "All right," said Sonic. "Let's get this over with." While Sonic had been filling out the paperwork, the female doctor had gotten everything set up, and when she had cleaned his skin, she picked up the needle, and Sonic asked, "Could you at least tell me when you're gonna put the needle in? Oh, there's the needle!" It wasn't near as bad as a knife in the arm, but it still stung for just a second.

She handed Sonic a ball and said, "Okay, I'll need you to squeeze this for me." Sonic nodded and squeezed repeatedly on the ball until they had enough blood collected from him. The doctor took the needle out of his arm and put a cotton ball and a Band-Aid on it. "All right, now eat you cookie and drink your orange juice." Sonic hadn't realized before that there was a chocolate chip cookie and a carton of orange juice sitting right next to him. "Oh, boy, a cookie!"

Sonic immediately picked up the cookie and ate almost the whole thing in one bite. The doctor was about to question why he liked the cookie so much, but she decided not to. The two doctors resumed their work on Milly soon afterward…

* * *

_One hour later_

Sonic and Liz were sitting in the chair across from Milly's bed, waiting for him to wake up. "I can't believe I did that to him…" said Sonic. "I'm so stupid… I'm such a terrible friend…" Liz put her hand on Sonic's shoulder and responded, "What you did was stupid, Sonic. I'm not gonna argue with you on that, but if you were a terrible friend, you would have just left him up there on that roof." Sonic closed his eyes and mumbled, "I just don't know what to think anymore, Liz… Frank… He's just making my life so miserable that I hurt Milly… I don't wanna go home after this…"

"Then don't." Milly had just woken up, but he had heard what Sonic said, and he was completely serious about what he said. "Go to the police. Tell them what he's doing and—WHOA!" Sonic had rushed over there and hugged Milly as hard as he could. "I'm so sorry for doing that to you, Milly! I'm so sorry!" Milly hugged Sonic back with only his right arm, since his left one hurt a lot. They released each other, and Milly looked at Sonic's face and realized something. "Why do you look so pale?"

"They needed to give you blood, and they didn't have any A-negative blood," started Sonic. "so I gave some to you. It was time for me to return the favor after all you guys have done for me." Milly didn't know what to say other than, "Th-thank you…" And then he remembered what he was talking about before Sonic had almost literally crashed into him. "But I'm serious about telling the police, Sonic."

"But I'm so scared that Frank's gonna hurt me if I do…"

"Who gives a crap if Frank finds out, though? Once you tell the police, you can come stay at the orphanage with me."

"I'm gonna have to go back to get my stuff, though…"

"No. Not until they've taken care of Frank. Just trust me on this one, Sonic."

Sonic nodded. He trusted Milly with his life, and then again, he had just saved his life twice. "Did they say if I could leave?" Liz walked over and shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know, but seeing as you're not hooked up to anything, my best bet is that you can leave anytime." Milly nodded and slid off the bed, after which, they went out and double checked that Milly could leave. After that, they left and headed for the police station…

* * *

_You can probably guess some of what will happen next... Time for Frank to finally get what he deserves... Anyway, those of you who haven't reviewed my story yet, I would very much like reviews from more people. I'm not saying I don't like satheroth335 and iammemyself's reviews, but I would like some more, please! Thanks in advance!_


	7. Chapter Six

_Thank you all for staying patient with me! My update is finally here after thirteen days! I don't know why it took me so long to write this. I was just having some major writer's block. Anyway, please enjoy, and here are the replies to the reviews. _

**Rob Lockster:** Thanks for dropping in! I'm glad you liked it!  
**iammemyself:** It _is_ hard to get reviews, but I've been getting more. Sonic doesn't have his sneakers yet, but my theory is that, instead of not being able to run at all without them, he just can't break the sound barrier without them.  
**Tobibakoranji:** Thanks! I know, Frank is terrible, but just you wait. Frank's gonna get what he deserves.  
**satheroth335:** Yes it is... Yes it is...

**_VERY IMPORTANT INFORMATION BELOW!  
_**

_There has been a slight change in the timeline. For those of you who have been reading my story since before May 11, 2012, I need to tell you about this. Sonic starts out as eight years old, and Milly is nine. Instead of spending only three months with Frank, Sonic spends a year and three months, so he's still ten years old in chapters four, five, six, and seven. I don't really know why I wanted to change the timeline, but I did. Anyway, happy reading!_

* * *

Chapter Six

As the three children walked up to the police precinct, Sonic couldn't stop shaking. "Sonic, it's gonna be okay," Milly reassured him. "Trust me. This is the first step you have to take for everything to get better." Sonic started stuttering as he asked, "B-b-b-but what if they… d-don't believe me?" Liz put her hand on his shoulder and replied, "Just tell them everything. It's gonna be all right. Take a deep breath… In through the nose…" Sonic breathed in slowly through his nose. "And out through the mouth…" He breathed out through his mouth in a few seconds, and then walked in with Milly and Liz following.

"Why, hello, children!" exclaimed the officer inside, a green crocodile who wore sunglasses and looked about in his forties. "What seems to be the problem?" A younger green crocodile, who looked about five years older than Sonic and had headphones on, replied, "Dad, what seems to be the problem is that the blue one looks pretty beat up." To Sonic, he seemed kind of rude, but paid him no heed as the officer said, "Vector, I know that, but I was trying to take it slowly. Anyway, what happened, son?"

Sonic was starting to get nervous again. "I-I… I… I-I-I… My… uncle…" Sonic was fidgeting with his hands. He just couldn't get it out until he blurted out as fast as he could, "He's so mean to me! If I do something wrong, or if I disobey one of his stupid rules, he beats me up! All the time! And it hurts so much! He cuts me with a knife and punches me and does all kinds of mean things to me! I just can't take it anymore!" Sonic had worked up over a year's worth of tears in that exclamation, and he collapsed to the floor and started crying.

"That kid must've been through a lot!" exclaimed Vector. The officer rolled his eyes at his son and responded, "I realize that, Captain Obvious. We need to help him, all right?" He walked over to Sonic and said in a very calm voice as he crouched down, "Hey, hey, hey… Everything's going to be all right, okay? What's your name?" Sonic sniffled and looked up at the crocodile. "Ogilvie… Call me… Sonic, though…" The officer smiled and asked, "Sonic, can you please tell me what your uncle's name is and where he lives?" Sonic nodded and replied, "His name is… Frank Mell… and he lives… at 4015… Cedar Street… It's a small… little shack… You can't… miss it… It sticks out… so much…"

The officer nodded and said, "Thank you, Sonic. I'll go and make sure your uncle can't do this again. You just wait here, okay?" He stood up and faced his son. "Vector, keep them company." He walked out the door, and the four kids inside could hear him pull his police cruiser out of the lot. "So, what're your names?" asked Vector in an attempt to make conversation as Sonic stood up from the ground. "I'm Liz," replied Liz.

"Vermillion's my name," stated Milly. "I prefer Milly, though." A wide smile appeared on Vector's mouth, and then he burst into laughter.

"What's so funny?" inquired Milly, obviously ticked off by Vector's behavior. Vector, who was still chuckling a little, responded, "Why do you have a girl's nickname? You do realize that Millie is a girl's name, right?" Milly let out an irritated sigh through his nose and nearly shouted, "M-I-L-L-Y! Milly! Not like the girl's name! That's spelled M-I-L-L-I-E! It's totally different!" Vector let out a voiced sigh and said, "Yeah, just keep thinking that, buddy." Milly scoffed angrily at him. "My God… You're annoying…"

"And you said your nickname's Sonic?" asked Vector. "Well, at least it's better than Mr. Girly over here…" This made Sonic smile a bit. At least Vector was entertaining. Milly just rolled his eyes at Vector and mumbled, "Whatever… Think what you want…" Vector chuckled once again. "So, Vector…" said Sonic shyly. "What's it like having a policeman as your dad?" Sonic wanted to get his mind completely off Frank for the time being. Vector hummed and put his fingers on his chin. "That's a good question. It's just like having any other dad, I guess, but he's the one that inspired me to shoot for a very special career when I'm older."

"What's that?" asked Sonic. Vector smiled and replied, "I'm gonna be a detective and start my very own agency! I even have the name for it made up already! It's gonna be called 'Chaotix', and people are gonna come to us from all over the place to have us do detective stuff! I also planned out where it's gonna be located, and that's Central City!" Sonic's eyes widened at the sheer amount of planning Vector had done, and he was only fifteen years old. He still had a bit less than three more years to go until he was out of high school. "Holy crap, Vector… When my dad was still alive… I wanted to be an architect, just like him, but now… I don't really know what I want to do…"

Vector's playful and rather annoying demeanor vanished and was soon replaced by a serious and more toned down personality. "Well, what skills do you have?" he asked. Sonic thought… and thought… and thought… but he could only think of one thing that really stood out above all else. "I can run almost as fast as the speed of sound. Does that count for anything, Vector?" Vector nodded and suggested, "Maybe you could become a professional athlete. They earn some good money, y'know… And now I've got a question. How come you can run _almost_ at the speed of sound but not at it? It'd be awesome if you could break the sound barrier!"

Sonic shrugged his shoulders and replied, "My dad once told me it has something to do with friction. As long as I have normal shoes, I can't quite do that." Then, they heard yelling outside. "Get out of the car! C'mon! I don't have all day!" Vector's dad seemed so relaxed when Sonic had met him, and now he was yelling his lungs out. Apparently he was having some trouble. There was more grunting outside, and then, within a minute, he walked in with none other than Frank in tow.

"You! You did this to me!" Frank yelled at Sonic, after which Sonic ran to the corner of the room and let out a yelp of fear. He knew that, in handcuffs, he couldn't do anything, but he was still scared. "If I ever get out of this, you're in for a world of hurt, you hear me, bitch? I _will_ find you and I _will_ make your life miserable, and then I _will_ murder you! Got that?" As Vector's dad continued to push Frank toward the back of the precinct, Frank shouted, "I asked you a question, bitch! Are you deaf? Answer me, boy!"

"I'm sorry!" cried Sonic. Milly walked over to Sonic and comforted him by hugging him. "Hey, it's okay… Everything's gonna be all right. You don't have to apologize to him for anything. You did the right thing. I promise…" Vector sighed and said, "In the five years my dad and I have lived here, I don't think I've ever seen anything like this… Poor kid… How long has he been living with that guy?" Liz sighed as well. "A year and three months," she started. "and that drove him to attempt suicide…"

Then, Vector's father walked back out to the children. "It's okay, Sonic, he's gone," he said in a very comforting voice. "He can't hurt you anymore…" That's when Sonic wrapped his arms around Milly and murmured, "Oh, thank God… Thank God… It _is_ over, isn't it, Milly… Thank God…" Sonic was crying tears of joy for the first time ever. "Don't worry," said Vector's dad. "he's not gonna be getting out of there anytime soon."

Milly, without turning away from Sonic, said a very sincere thank-you to Vector's dad, and then suggested, "Hey, Sonic, how 'bout we go get your stuff?" Sonic nodded, and the two boys started to walk over to the door. "Again, thanks so much for your help…" Liz walked over to them, and the three of them were about to walk out the door. To try and lighten the mood before they left, Vector exclaimed, "Bye, Sonic! Bye, Liz! Bye, Mr. Girly!" The fist on Milly's arm that wasn't around Sonic clenched, and he rolled his eyes. "It's not a girl's name…" he muttered.

"I may only have just met him," started Vector's dad after the three left. "but I hope Sonic recovers… I've seen too many-a-kid in my line of business never recuperate from something like this…" Vector, whose playful personality hadn't yet reasserted itself yet, responded, "He seems to have a way of keeping his mind off things. He didn't talk about it at all while you were gone. If he keeps doing that, he'll be fine."

The three children walked in the direction of Frank's house, which was only about six blocks from the precinct. "I don't see how Frank lived this close to the police office and they never found out," stated Liz. Sonic sighed and responded, "Sound didn't exactly travel well out of the house, so I guarantee what most people heard were just very muffled screams of pain…" His mood had swung once again. The kids stayed in silence for a couple seconds until Milly broke it with, "Soooo… Sonic, are you glad that you're gonna get to stay with me?"

Sonic nodded. "Yeah, but… Shouldn't I be happy right now? Frank's gonna be put in jail… So why aren't I happy…?" Milly sighed. He didn't have an answer for Sonic, and nor did Liz. "I don't know, Sonic, but let's try to be as happy as possible, okay? Liz and I'll do our best to help you along the way." Sonic was glad that Frank was in jail, but in this sense, glad and happy were not synonymous. Soon enough, they arrived at the shack, and both Liz and Milly had disgusted expressions on their faces as they walked in. "You had to live in this dump?" exclaimed Liz. "There's junk everywhere! And there's blood!"

Sonic had honestly gotten used to living in such a dirty environment. It was sure going to be weird to upgrade from that to even the orphanage, which was a mess sometimes as well. "So, what's all yours?" asked Milly as he looked around the shack. Sonic just walked over to his bed and grabbed his backpack and picture. "This is it. He didn't let me have anything more than this…" He paused for a second, and then started walking out of the house. "I wanna get out of here as fast as possible. Good riddance, Frank. I'll never have to get a beer for that bastard again."

They all walked out of the house and headed for the orphanage. When they got there, Mrs. Mutti gave Milly a bone-crushing hug, and then gave one to Sonic as well. "Aren't you mad at me?" asked Sonic. Mrs. Mutti released him and shook her head. "No, but what happened to drive you to that? Surely it wasn't just the trauma of the incident." Sonic shook his head as well. "I have something important to tell you, but I think you should sit down as I do." The four of them walked into the living room, where Sonic told Mrs. Mutti about everything that had taken place over the past year and three months.

When Sonic was done, all Mrs. Mutti could say was, "Oh, my God… Ogilvie, how come you never told me about this?" Sonic had been crying, so he sniffled and replied, "I was too scared… Frank was just so menacing that… I forgot every bit of common sense I had… But it's over now… It's finally over… I don't have to worry about it anymore…" Mrs. Mutti nodded. "That's right… Just make sure that you tell me about anything that happens from now on…"

Seeing as Sonic was done talking, Milly saw this as the perfect opportunity to ask, "So, I have a question… Can Sonic stay here… with us? Please?" Mrs. Mutti sighed and responded, "I don't know…" Milly used the cuteness of a child to his advantage as he looked up at Mrs. Mutti with his hands folded and his bottom lip over the top one. "I know things are tight right now, but he doesn't have anywhere to go… Please? Pretty please?" This really was a hard decision for Mrs. Mutti. She wanted with all of her heart to take Sonic in, but she was having a hard time taking care of the orphans currently in the orphanage.

She couldn't very well abandon Sonic, though. "All right. He can stay here." A smile appeared on Milly's face as he exclaimed, "Did ya hear that, Sonic? You're gonna get to have a decent home, and a good family, or at least something close to a family! Isn't this great?" Sonic just shrugged his shoulders, which made Milly roll his eyes and say, "C'mon, Sonic, don't get all depressed right now! This is supposed to be a happy moment! Jump for joy!" Nothing. "Say 'hooray'!" Still nothing. "At least smile!" Not even a hint of a smile appeared on Sonic's face. "Don't get me wrong, Milly. I know I'm supposed to be happy. I want to be happy. I don't even know why I'm not happy…"

Mrs. Mutti stood up and put her hand on Sonic's shoulder. "It's going to be all right. Just give it some time… but the first thing I want you to do is take a shower. Those cuts aren't going to clean themselves, and I can't patch you up if they aren't sanitized." Sonic shook his head. "I just wanna go to bed…" Sonic started walking up to the rooms, but Mrs. Mutti quickly grabbed his arm and stopped him. "You're not sleeping until I've taken care of those. Go take a shower and come back down here after you've done that." She faced Milly and said, "Vermillion, I want you to make sure that he doesn't just go up there and go to bed.

Sonic wrestled free of Mrs. Mutti's grasp and yelled, "You're just like Frank, telling me when I can and can't go to bed!" Mrs. Mutti shook her head multiple times, kneeled down, and started to stroke Sonic's quills. "No, no, no, no, no… We're not trying to do that. It's just that we're trying to make sure those cuts are all right…" Milly walked over to Sonic and said, "We're trying to help you! Why is it so hard to do something as simple as taking a shower?" Sonic sighed and partially came back to his senses. "But won't I disturb someone? Isn't it loud and distracting?"

Milly raised an eyebrow at Sonic's question. "What? Why would you disturb anyone? Did Frank tell you that? Don't listen to anything he said. No one around here's gonna care if you take a shower right now." Milly just couldn't believe that he was trying to convince him to take a _shower_ of all things. "You're right…" responded Sonic. "I just don't know what's wrong with me. I shouldn't have anything against taking a shower…"

Liz then looked at the time, and it said one o'clock. "Oh, shoot! I need to get home!" She walked over to Sonic and hugged him tightly. "Bye, Sonic. I hope you feel better." She walked out the door after saying good-bye to both Mrs. Mutti and Milly. After she left, Sonic agreed to take a shower.

* * *

_Eight hours later_

Ever since he got out of the shower, Sonic had been covered from head to toe in adhesive bandages and antibacterial cream, and honestly, he looked like a kid who had been cut from falling off a skateboard. In an attempt to cheer him up, many of the orphans had tried to play with him or talk with him, and they succeeded, actually. By this time, Sonic was once again happy, and he was putting his stuff in Milly's room, since he was going to be sharing that room with him, while Milly's former roommate, Espio, was moving his stuff out to a different room.

"Sorry I'm making you move outta here, Espio," said Sonic as Espio started to walk out the door. The purple chameleon turned around and replied, "Don't worry about it, Sonic. Besides, you said yourself that you'd feel more comfortable being in the same room as Milly." Espio was once again about to walk out, but Sonic thought of something. "Hey, Espio, you're interested in detective stuff, right?" Espio nodded his head, and Sonic continued, "Well, the police chief's son, Vector, wants to be a detective when he's older. Maybe you two should meet each other sometime, y'know?"

Espio put his hand on his chin and said, "Sounds intriguing. All right, I will. Of course, not now, but maybe tomorrow or something." He walked out of the room toward his new room saying, "See you in the morning, Sonic." Sonic waved and responded, "See ya in the morning!" Then, Milly walked into the room and remarked, "Well, someone seems chipper right now. I told you you'd feel better. On the other hand, I'm pretty tired, and I want some sleep. I think you'd better get some, too, otherwise you're gonna be tired in the morning. We still have school tomorrow. I'm not telling you that you _have_ to go to bed; I'm just saying it'd be a good idea."

Sonic shrugged his shoulders. "I was gonna go to bed anyway, because…" He plopped down on the bed. "This thing is so comfy!" Milly raised an eyebrow at that. "You sure? I always thought these were a bit firm." Without even sitting up, Sonic replied, "Dude, I had to sleep on a pull-out for three months. Why wouldn't I think this is comfy?" Milly chuckled and shut off the light in the room. He walked over to his bed and got in it, after which Sonic said, "G'night, Milly." Milly smiled and responded, "Night, Sonic."

It only took a measly few minutes for Sonic to fall asleep, even with the thunderstorm that was brewing outside. However, his sleep was plagued with nightmares of Frank, memories to be exact. However, the one that was the scariest for Sonic was one that was not a memory. Sonic was walking down the sidewalk in this one, a few blocks away from the orphanage, when Frank showed up in front of him. "F-F-Frank!" exclaimed Sonic. "What're you doing here? You're supposed to be in jail!"

Frank's angry face was the thing that scared Sonic the most. "I'm gonna kill you, bitch!" He kicked Sonic to the ground, and while it didn't hurt, Sonic couldn't tell that it was just a nightmare, and not the real thing. "I'm so sorry, Frank! I didn't mean to!" Frank then pulled a long pocket knife out of his pocket and brought the blade down toward Sonic's head…

Sonic woke up from the night terror, screaming at the top of his lungs and falling out of the bed in the process. Milly immediately awoke from his sleep and frantically looked for Sonic as he asked, "Sonic, what's wrong?" His eyes focused on the blue hedgehog, who was, at this point, sitting on the floor and hugging his knees. Mrs. Mutti, who looked tired but worried at the same time, rushed into the room. "What happened? Why did you scream?" Soon enough, all of the orphans gathered around the door as Sonic exclaimed, "He was gonna kill me! He was right there in front of me! And he was gonna murder me!" He burst into tears and started repeatedly saying, "He was gonna kill me!"

Milly got out of his bed and walked over to Sonic. "It's okay, Sonic. He wasn't there. It was just a nightmare, okay?" Sonic sniffled and looked up at Milly. "Really…?" he asked, his voice quivering as he did. Milly nodded and hugged the frightened boy. "Everything's okay… Frank's not gonna hurt you anymore…" He helped Sonic back into bed, and everyone left soon afterward. There was something Sonic wanted to ask after that, but he was trying to summon up the courage. He didn't know why he was so afraid to ask, but he was. "Milly, are you still awake?"

Milly sat up in his bed and inquired, "Yeah, what's up?" Sonic sighed. He was embarrassed to ask this, but he wasn't going to get any sleep unless he did. "C-c-can you… Y'know… S-s-s… Sleep over here with me?" Milly wondered why Sonic had stuttered his words, but didn't pay it much heed as he grabbed his pillow and got up. "Of course. What are friends for?" He walked over to Sonic's bed, and Sonic scooted over to make room as Milly set his pillow down on the bed and laid down next to him. "Th-thanks, Milly…" said Sonic. Milly smiled and replied, "No prob."

With Milly by him, Sonic felt safer, and when first he fell asleep, he wasn't shown any nightmares, but that soon changed, and he once again saw the same nightmare over and over. This was only the first of many nightmares he'd have in the weeks to come…


	8. Chapter Seven

_Hello, hello! I am here once again with a new chapter! This was kind of rushed, so I apologize if it's not as good as the others, but this is the second to last chapter of this story if everything goes according to plan. However, there will be a sequel coming out sometime after I finish the next chapter of this fic. Anyway, here come the replies!  
_

**iammemyself:** I know... Sonic is very sad... But he gets better in this chapter! Anyway, I'm not sure if I'm going to include Uncle Chuck or not. If I do, he's not going to pop up until the sequel, but if I find a way to fit him into the story, I'll put him in there. And about Frank not exactly getting what he deserves, I kind of did that for a plot point in the sequel and _The Two-Tailed Fox_. You'll have to wait and see exactly what that plot point is, though.  
**Siberian Forest:** Thanks! I never thought it was extremely detailed, but maybe it's just detailed enough.**_  
_**

**_VERY IMPORTANT INFORMATION BELOW!  
_**

_There has been a slight change in the timeline. For those of you who have been reading my story since before May 11, 2012, I need to tell you about this. Sonic starts out as eight years old, and Milly is nine. Instead of spending only three months with Frank, Sonic spends a year and three months, so he's still ten years old in chapters four, five, six, and seven. I don't really know why I wanted to change the timeline, but I did. Anyway, happy reading!_**  
**

* * *

Chapter Seven

A week had passed since Sonic tried to commit suicide, but Sonic's thoughts hadn't strayed from the dark desire to kill himself. Frank had deeply scarred Sonic, and each night for that week, Milly had to convince him not to do anything stupid. One night, he actually found him with a knife in his hand, ready to stab himself in the heart once again. When he saw this, Milly literally screamed at Sonic, saying, "Sonic, do you realize how much of an idiot you are? Frank can't hurt you anymore! So why? WHY? You don't need to die!" Only a day later, Milly was still angry with Sonic, no matter how much the apologetic blue hedgehog tried to plead with him that he was sorry.

Milly hadn't talked to Sonic all day, and up until lunch, periodically at about every ten minutes, Sonic had said, "I'm sorry, Milly," but the vermillion raccoon just ignored him. Finally, he got fed up with Sonic's apologies in the middle of lunch and yelled, "I get it! For the thousandth time, I get it! You're sorry! I understand why you did it the first time, but Frank is out of your life! I am sick and tired of hearing you complain all the time! That reminds me so much of what my brother did!" Sonic was scared out of his wits, but he had to ask a question. "What did he do?"

Sonic remembered Milly's older brother. He was a very nice guy, although he could sometimes fly off the handle. In fact, Mrs. Mutti had always said that Milly reminded her a lot of him. However, he died when he was twelve. He fell and accidentally cut his wrists open… or so Sonic thought. Was Milly's rage at Sonic linked to what happened with his brother? Sonic had no idea, but Milly ran out of the dining room, tears welling up in his eyes. Within thirty seconds, Sonic heard Milly slam one of the doors upstairs.

Naturally, all of the children were worried about Milly himself, but Sonic was more worried about what he had done to make the poor kid so angry and sad. Without bothering to finish the rest of his cheeseburger, he ran upstairs after Milly. When he got to their room, he knocked on the door and said, "Hey, Milly, it's Sonic. Can I come in?" He heard the sound of Milly throwing a pillow at the door as he shouted, "No! Just go away!" Sonic sighed. Did Milly really think it was going to be that easy to get rid of him? "You know I'm not gonna leave. Seriously, is something wrong? You know you can talk to me about it. I told you everything that happened to me." And Sonic meant everything. He had even told Milly about something that Frank did that made Sonic very uncomfortable… Without going into too much detail, it's enough to say that Sonic was touched very inappropriately…

He could hear Milly sigh, as if realizing something. "All right… There is something that I need to get off my chest…" Sonic walked in the room and sat next to his friend, who immediately apologized. "I'm sorry for yelling at you, Sonic… I don't know what came over me, but…" Milly took a deep breath. He was going to need it for what he was about to tell Sonic. "My brother… Yeah, he was a nice older brother, and he was really the one who took care of me after our parents had dropped us off at the orphanage, since they couldn't take care of us." This was all stuff Sonic knew already.

"But he had autism, and he didn't get a lot of things… at all… So people started making fun of him at school, and everyone was telling him lies about himself… And he believed them… They said he was scrawny… and dumb… and worthless… none of which he actually was… Yeah, he was a bit slow to get things, but deep down, he was really smart… Soon enough, he got fed up, and in the alley behind here, he slit his wrists with a knife… and I saw him do it… I should have stopped him…" Tears were accumulating in his eyes as he told the story, and Sonic noticed this. "You need a hug, buddy?"

Milly nodded his head and fell into Sonic's arms, and unlike when Sonic cried, Milly made much quieter sounds. "I just… wish you wouldn't do stuff like that, Sonic… It just reminds me so much of that… I don't want to remember that… It's hard to lose someone you love… Especially when they kill themselves…" Milly paused for a second, and then released Sonic. "I know you can't promise you won't do that again, but please… just try your best not to… For me…"

"I promise to try, Milly," replied Sonic. "I promise to try." Even though Milly believed in the famous phrase "do or do not; there is no try", he still took comfort in the fact that Sonic was going to try. In fact, he was beginning to become disillusioned to that saying, because he honestly knew that Sonic couldn't control what he did half the time anymore. "Thanks so much, Sonic. That means a lot to me." After a few seconds of just sitting there, Sonic said, "So, does this mean you're not mad at me anymore?" Milly smiled. "How could I ever stay mad at you for longer than that? It's impossible!" Then, Milly's stomach made a loud grumbling sound. "Let's go and finish our lunch now!" he exclaimed, quickly running downstairs with Sonic following.

When they got back down there, Milly was pelted by questions. He almost never got angry, so when he did, they knew something had to be wrong, but Milly wasn't about to tell that story again, granted that most of them knew anyway. "I'm fine, guys!" was all he said to them with a smile, and that's all they needed to know. They had learned from Mrs. Mutti to always respect one another's privacy.

After they were done eating, Milly took Sonic out to the shed behind the orphanage, where Milly would often spend his time. Milly wanted to be a scientist when he was older, and the shed was kind of his lab, per se. Milly seemed excited as he pulled Sonic out to the shed, and that was usually a sign that he wanted to show him something, and Sonic was usually impressed by whatever he showed him. When they got in there, Milly said to Sonic, "Okay, so you said that the soles of your shoes have been getting worn down because of all the running you do, right?" Sonic nodded.

Milly walked over to a corner, where he pulled a box with wrapping paper on it out. "I made something that'll completely solve that problem." He walked back over to Sonic and handed him the box, almost immediately after which, the blue hedgehog opened it. "Tada! Say hello to your new friction-proof sneakers! I did tons of math and experiments to get them just right… That and it took me a while because, no offense, you have giant feet." And Sonic took no offense. He knew he had big feet. After all, he was only ten and he wore size twelve shoes. "Now, the soles of your shoes won't get worn down, and you'll be able to run even faster! I hope you like 'em!"

Sonic looked at the shoes. They were red with a white stripe in the middle, and each one had a gold buckle added for style on the outer side of the shoe. He quickly took off his old shoes and slipped on the new ones. They fit extremely well, and they felt great, as if he wasn't even wearing shoes. They were so light! "Wow! Milly, these are amazing! I'm gonna go try 'em out really quick!" He dashed out of the shed, and within only a few seconds, he was back. "Ho… ly… CRAP!" exclaimed Sonic. "That was freakin' amazing! My God, Milly! _You're_ amazing!"

Milly smiled and rubbed the back of his head. "Aww, it's no big deal. Where'd you run to?" Sonic smiled as well and replied, "And this is the best part. I ran all the way to school!" Milly's mouth dropped open at that, and he did some quick calculations in his head. "To be able to do that, you'd have to be going somewhere around one thousand two hundred miles per hour! You couldn't have possibly run all the way to school!" Sonic's smile turned into a smirk. "But I did! And it was incredible! I'd never felt so free before! That speed takes my nickname to a whole new level!"

Milly was truly astounded. Not only did his work give Sonic the ability to run faster than he ever had, but it also gave him joy, and it was joy that wouldn't have been possible without him. "Thank you so much, Milly! I don't think I'll ever be able to find words to truly thank you! Maybe this'll help me take my mind off of everything, and it's all thanks to you!" He grabbed Milly's hand and started to pull him out of the shed. "Do you wanna feel speed, Milly?" Milly was kind of afraid of going that fast, but he wasn't about to refuse Sonic. He hadn't seen him this happy in a whole year. The raccoon nodded, and Sonic slid his hand down from Milly's hand to his wrist. "Better hold on! We're gonna go supersonic!" Milly tightened his grip on Sonic's wrist as the hedgehog took off.

Around the two of them, the scenery became nothing but a blur, and time seemed to slow. Milly saw why Sonic liked to run so much. It was so peaceful, yet so exhilarating at the same time. He couldn't really describe the feeling. There were just so many separate sensations going on at once. Within only a few minutes, they arrived back at the orphanage, and Milly felt slightly dizzy when they stopped, but he quickly regained his composure. "Whoa…" muttered Milly. "That was… indescribable… Oh, my gosh…" Sonic smiled and asked, "Well, did you like it?" Milly nodded, and Sonic responded, "Good. It was the only way I could think of to really thank you. I think you've just changed my life, buddy."

A wide grin spread across Milly's face. It felt good to know just how appreciated he and his efforts were, and to know that he didn't just do that for naught. "I'm gonna go and run for a while," said Sonic. "Tell Mrs. Mutti I'll be back soon." He dashed off, since he just couldn't wait to run that fast again. He didn't even have a destination in mind. He just kept running…

* * *

Sonic had lost track of time, but he knew it was sometime in the afternoon. He stopped only for a second to look at a clock. "Three-o-five… Dang, I've been running for a while, haven't I? I'd better get back before Mrs. Mutti starts to worry." Sonic didn't know what had gotten into him. He never lost track of time like that. Maybe it was this newfound bliss he found in running. On his way home, however, he collided head on with something very metallic, and he fell to the ground, rubbing his forehead. "Ow…" He looked up at what he bumped into and saw a metal leg extending into something that looked like a mix between a hovercraft and a UFO.

"And just who might you be?" asked the man in the hovercraft thing, pointing the gun on his machine at Sonic. Sonic stood up and looked at the man. He looked to be in his forties or fifties… maybe even sixties… He couldn't tell… He had bluish-gray pince-nez sunglasses on that completely covered his eyes and goggles on his bald head. One of the weirdest things about the man was his mustache. It was a light brown and very long one that seemed to defy all laws of physics just by sitting on his face. And his body… Well, it was one of the most hilarious things Sonic had seen in his life. It was shaped like an egg… He just cracked up right there and then.

"I'd love for you to explain to me exactly what you find so funny, boy!" exclaimed the man, obviously getting angrier. Sonic stopped laughing and replied, "Sorry, dude, but if you're gonna point a gun at somebody, don't you wanna look at least a bit more intimidating? Huh, Eggman?" Eggman… He started laughing once again. That truly was a clever nickname… He just couldn't get over the hilariousness of it. Eggman got fed up with Sonic's laughter and shot at him as he yelled, "Silence, pincushion!" Sonic's reflexes, however, were lightning fast, and he quickly dodged the incoming spray of bullets.

"Sorry, Eggman, but you won't get me to shut up anytime soon!" This angered Eggman even more. "I said silence! My name is not Eggman! I am Doctor Ivo Robotnik, the greatest scientific genius in the world!" Sonic started giggling once again. "Man, you're hysterical! Greatest scientific genius, my butt! Wouldn't that mean you'd have to invent a gun that could hit a small little hedgehog? Or am I too fast for you?" Eggman, or rather Robotnik… No, Sonic still wanted to call him Eggman… Eggman was getting very irate at this point, and he began to shoot in Sonic's direction… which was everywhere! The blue hedgehog was running back and forth, dodging all of the bullets shot by Eggman.

"Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah! You can't catch me!" taunted Sonic. Soon enough, Eggman shot a car next to Sonic, and it exploded, nearly catching him in the blast. As he was blown away by the force of the explosion, he shouted, "Hey! Not cool!" _Man…_ thought Sonic. _How am I gonna hit him? I've gotta figure out something!_ And then, a light bulb went off in his mind. He was a hedgehog, and hedgehogs could roll up into little balls. So if he was able to gain enough speed while doing that, he could demolish that robot's legs. "Bingo!" he yelled as he ran straight up a building, the exact one he had tried to jump off of. "Yo, Eggman! Heads up!" He rolled straight down the building, picking up a major amount of speed as he did.

"Oh, no!" Eggman started wildly pushing buttons on his control panel. "Move faster, you lethargic bot!" Unfortunately for the bloated buffoon, Sonic rolled straight through two of the legs, quickly turned, and rolled through the other two legs, making the robot collapse. Eggman ejected his hovercraft from the machine and asked, "Who are you, you little blue devil?" Sonic winked and gave a thumbs-up. "I'm Sonic! Sonic the Hedgehog!" Eggman smirked. "Well, Sonic, you win this time, but next time, it will be different!"

He flew away, leaving only Sonic and the broken remnants of the robotic legs. "Bye, Eggman! See you later!" Sonic looked around him and saw destroyed buildings and cars around him. Apparently Eggman had already torn through this place before Sonic showed up. People started to come out of buildings, and they all double checked in each direction, making sure that Eggman was gone. Once they were sure, they started walking over to Sonic, chanting his name.

"Again, here we are," said a reporter while standing in front of a camera and next to Sonic with a microphone near her mouth. "live from Ninth and Forest Street, where a young and brave hedgehog has just saved us from the nefarious Doctor Robotnik. Young man, can you please tell us your name?" She bent down and held the microphone out to Sonic. "Uh…" started Sonic. "My name's Ogilvie Maurice Hedgehog, but call me Sonic! Oh, and hi, Milly! Hi, Mrs. Mutti!" The reporter smiled and put the microphone back by her mouth. "How would you describe what you did today, Sonic?" When the microphone was moved back to him, he had to think for a few seconds.

"Umm…" he said. "Well, I guess it was pretty cool! I just demolished that thing like it was nothing! And that Eggman guy… Oh, man did he crack me up! Anyway, I think what I just did was pretty dang amazing! I should probably be getting home now, though! Thanks for interviewing me!" And with that, the young hedgehog ran off, leaving the reporter to do her report on the situation.

When he got back to the orphanage, he walked up to the entertainment room, where the TV was on, and all of the orphans, along with Mrs. Mutti, were watching the same newscast that Sonic had just been interviewed on. "Hey, guys!" he exclaimed. "How's it going?" All of them turned around and saw the blue hedgehog standing there, a wide grin on his face. Almost all of them yelled his name and crowded around him. After a few seconds, Milly's voice broke through the loud chatter. "That was just plain incredible, Sonic! You're a hero now! Isn't that awesome?"

Sonic thought. "I'm a hero…" he mumbled. "I'm a hero. I'm a hero!" He sighed happily and continued, "I don't think I've ever felt this happy in my entire life!" Stopping Eggman had truly made him happy, almost as happy as running did. _Maybe my life isn't so bad after all!_

* * *

_Yay, Sonic! You finally have your shoes and have finally met Eggman! Yay! I don't know when the next update will be coming, but hopefully it's soon!  
_

-Camobamo1


	9. Chapter Eight

_Hi, everyone! Are you prepared for my last chapter? It's not too much, but hopefully it provides enough closure for the sequel! Enjoy, and here is the reply to the one review I got. I seriously expect more from you guys than one review, though..._

**WybiE'z KidNapPer:** I know... He really did get more than just a beating, but I'm glad to know you like the story!

_Happy reading, guys, and I really hope you enjoy the last chapter!_

* * *

Chapter Eight

A year had passed since Sonic's first encounter with Eggman, and that first encounter definitely was not his last. Whenever he showed up on Christmas Island to wreak havoc, Sonic was always right in front of him, ready to foil his plans. Defeating Eggman became his definition of fun, and running became his definition of relaxation. Whenever things would slow down for even a minute, he would start to get antsy and anxious. All of this was part of an effort, one to repress his horrid memories. To push the sadness deep inside his mind and bury it, he had resorted to acting happy almost all the time. He just thought of pleasant things, or even nothing at all besides his surroundings, and found that he was all right.

Milly had come to like this new Sonic. He definitely had a knack for brightening your day, and if he didn't succeed, he would keep trying until you smiled. He couldn't stand to see anyone cry, not after he had cried so much in Frank's care. However, if there was one thing Milly didn't like about the new Sonic, it was that he always pushed himself a bit too far. He loved that Sonic was trying, but the hedgehog even fainted once after battling Eggman and reluctantly spent a few days in bed, and he would, without fail, come home with cuts and bruises from battles with Eggman.

Sonic had, in a way, become the local hero, and as such, he was granted a little leniency when it came to school. Actually, it was more like a lot of leniency, since he had been able to long ago test out of school granted his position as hero. It wasn't something that was normally allowed, but he couldn't very well let his grades slip as he saved the island practically every other day from Eggman. Saving the day had become part of his everyday life, and although he did it so often, it never became tedious…

* * *

"Yo, Eggman! What's up? Is that a new robot or something?" Sonic was yet again in the process of defeating Eggman. Eggman smirked while floating next to his machine. "Why yes it is, Sonic. It's called E-001, the first of my E-series robots. And now, prepare to be squashed into a blue jelly!" This machine, however, didn't stand on four legs, or even two. Instead, it flew in the air, and this was something Sonic was definitely going to have trouble with. "E-001, begin fire! Shoot holes into him like he's bleu cheese!" Eggman began to snicker. "Ha… Bleu cheese… I'm punny…"

E-001 began to shoot at Sonic, and of course, the blue hedgehog ran in all directions to avoid the incoming bullets, and when Eggman had finally gotten fed up with this, he commanded, "E-001, knock him down." A long and sturdy leg came from the robot's bottom plate as it tracked Sonic's movements. When its calibrations were complete, it raised its leg and flicked it toward Sonic, knocking him back into a wall. "Ow!" he exclaimed as he hit the wall and fell about two stories back down. He got up and thought, _Man… Just how am I gonna hit that thing? Eggman's never used something like this before…_

Sonic was truly out of ideas. Even if he climbed the tallest building in town, the robot could still fly higher than he could jump. This was a predicament he hadn't foreseen. For the next fifteen minutes he repeatedly switched between getting pelted with bullets and getting slammed into walls. If this kept up, he was going to be tired as heck soon and maybe even faint. "Dang it!" he yelled as he fell to the ground once more. "Shoot! There's gotta be some way to hit that thing!" Then, Sonic heard an airplane in the distance. He couldn't make out exactly who was piloting it, since it was far away, but as it got closer, he could slightly make out a vermillion-colored person in there.

"Sonic!" yelled the person as he continued to close in. Sonic smiled and shouted back, "Hey, Milly!" When he was close enough, Milly swooped down, and Sonic jumped onto the plane, standing right in the middle of the wings. As Sonic quickly studied the plane, he noticed that it was a propeller biplane, and that it was painted red. It had "Sonic" written on the sides as well. "Cool plane!" he exclaimed. "Where'd you get it?" Milly slightly chuckled and replied, "I didn't really get it anywhere! I built it! Happy eleventh birthday, Sonic!" A wide grin spread across Sonic's face. "And it gets better!" said Milly.

He maneuvered himself to face E-001 and pressed a button on the joystick inside the cockpit, making bullets spray out of the front of the plane, completely in sync with the propeller. As the bullets hit E-001, they pierced even its hard steel shell. "Sonic, jump down and finish the job!" exclaimed Milly. Sonic winked and gave a thumbs-up before jumping off the plane and curling into a ball, shredding right through E-001's shell and inner circuitry, and just as he exited, the robot exploded. As he landed right on his feet, Sonic looked up to Eggman, who was coughing from the smoke of the explosion, and asked, "Had enough, Egghead? Or do you have another new robot that you want me to trash?"

Eggman growled loudly and responded, "You win this time, you nasty little pincushion, but mark my words! Next time, you _will_ pay!" As Eggman flew away, Sonic replied, "Yeah, that's what you always say, but I never pay! Hey, I can make a rhyme anytime!" Milly, who was still flying above, decreased speed and eventually landed next to Sonic. As Milly hopped out of the plane, Sonic immediately ran over to it, inspecting it thoroughly. "This is mine?" he asked after about two minutes.

Milly smiled and answered, "Yup! Like I said, happy birthday, Sonic, but first…" He climbed back into the plane and motioned for Sonic to get in the back seat. "I've gotta teach you how to fly this thing!" Sonic enthusiastically nodded and jumped in the back seat as Milly started to wheel the plane down the street. "The first thing you've gotta do is pick up speed!" As they sped up more and more, Milly started to pull the joystick down. "And then you pull down… and… Takeoff!" They got lifted off the ground and into the air, and as they ascended, Sonic found flight a truly wonderful feeling, almost as much so as running.

After a half-hour tutorial on how to fly the plane, they landed at the orphanage and parked it in the back. "So, do you have a name for it, Milly?" asked Sonic after they landed. Milly raised an eyebrow. "What? I was thinking you'd come up with something." Sonic chuckled. "I haven't really thought about it, though… Something to do with the wind or the air would fit… Or both…" Sonic went through possible names in his head, but there was one that stood out, one that really had a ring to it. Milly had been scrolling through names in his head as well, and he came up with one. "How about we call it…" started Sonic. "The Tornado!" they simultaneously exclaimed.

And they both smiled. "Pick, poke, you owe me a Coke! Jinx, you owe me a soda!" They also exclaimed that at the same time, and they both laughed. "I think Tornado's a great name!" said Sonic as they walked into the orphanage. When they walked in, however, they saw a kind-looking couple of wolves at the table with Mrs. Mutti. This was always a good sign. When two adults were at a table with her, that meant that someone might be adopted. "Vermillion, you're just in time. This nice couple here is looking for someone to adopt, and they're thinking they might want to adopt you, so they'd like to talk with you for a while."

When Sonic looked at him, the raccoon was brewing with happiness. It showed in his eyes, his posture… Everything. He hadn't had anyone want to adopt him in two years. Maybe this couple would be different than all the rest that had tried to adopt him before then. Maybe they would actually want him in their family. Milly nodded his head and walked over to the two wolves as Sonic walked upstairs to their room and waited for the meeting to get over.

As Sonic sat in the room, however, a thought reached him. "What if Milly does get adopted?" he asked himself. "What am I gonna do? I know I can't depend on him forever, but…" He sighed. He knew Milly was still going to be living on Christmas Island, but he didn't want him to leave his side. Milly was one of the reasons he was strong. Without him, he was alone… vulnerable… and afraid… Afraid that something could happen to him again. However, Sonic had to come up with a solution, so he pondered his choices until he came up with one that actually seemed feasible.

When Milly came into the room, he was brimming with happiness, and it took all of his will not to yelp in joy like a little girl. "Sonic," he started. "Guess what?" And with that, a smile spread across Sonic's face as well. "I got adopted!" exclaimed Milly. Sonic ran over to him and happily hugged him. "That's awesome, Milly! I'm so happy for you!" When they released each other, Sonic asked, "So, when are you leaving? And where are you gonna live?" While Milly didn't stop smiling, his grin slightly died down, and he sighed. "Sonic… They live all the way in the suburbs. You'll still be able to visit, though, and I'll be able to visit, too. I'm not leaving for another three days, though."

It was good that he wasn't leaving right away, but Sonic didn't want his best friend to move far away. However, there was something that Sonic had been contemplating even before this point. For a while now, Eggman had been attacking abroad, and Sonic had been thinking it might be better to leave and go wherever the bloated madman caused trouble. With Milly leaving, he was starting to really consider it.

"Milly, I've got something to tell you, and you have to promise to wait before you tell Mrs. Mutti." Milly nodded, and Sonic continued, "I've been thinking and I've decided to leave and live on my own. Y'know, to teach me about being independent. That, and Eggman's been attacking other places… and I know I'm never gonna get adopted…" Milly was getting a bit confused. Why would Sonic want to do something like that?

He asked Sonic the question, and he got the reply of, "It's… because of everything. This island… Everything on it… It reminds me of what happened, and when you leave, if I keep thinking about all that, I'm not sure I'd ever be the same." He sighed before continuing, "I just hope Mrs. Mutti understands my reasons…" Unbeknownst to the two of them, Mrs. Mutti was outside their door at the time. "It's okay, Ogilvie," she said as she walked into the room. "You're a mature boy. I'm sure you can take care of yourself."

"D-d-do you mean that?" asked Sonic. He had never been called mature before. All he had heard from Frank was "insolent bitch" or "good-for-nothing boy" or "naïve kid". Mrs. Mutti nodded, and Sonic ran over to her, hugging her. "So you understand, then?" She nodded once again. "Yes. A child your age craves independence like he does food. It's no surprise that you want to go off on your own, and even when you do, we'll still be back here rooting for you." Sonic looked up at her with a smile on his face. "Thank you," he said. They released each other, and Mrs. Mutti stated, "You and Vermillion are two of the most mature children I think I've ever seen. I'm going to miss you both."

With that, she left the room to hold back tears. While she loved all of the other orphans dearly, the two of them were the most like sons to her. "They have to grow up sometime…" she whispered to herself. "and it's better that they do it early than late." The two children played around for the rest of the day, and soon enough, they ate dinner, and later went to bed for the night. However, while Milly slept peacefully with dreams about his new family, Sonic laid there, eyes wide open. He wanted to leave, yes, but he knew it was going to be scary… No one to protect him if he needed help… He'd be alone… He wouldn't have his best friend by his side…

_But if I do this… _he thought. _I'll be protecting everyone… Won't I?_ Eggman wouldn't be able to hurt more innocent people if he stood in his way all the time. Deep down, this is what Sonic wanted. He wanted to save people. He wanted the independence, too… but something on the surface of his personality kept him from attaining internal peace about it: fear. Fear had kept him from doing a lot of things over the years, but he was a hero now. Heroes were fearless. But there was no way he could just let go of his fears. Then, he remembered a famous and much used quote. "Fearlessness is not the absence of fear, but the facing of it." He had to face his fears, just like he did with Frank…

* * *

It was the day; the day when both Milly and Sonic would leave the orphanage. It had come faster than they expected it to. Milly was walking down the stairs next to Sonic, suitcase in hand, while the only belonging Sonic was bringing with him was a picture. When they got downstairs, something hit Milly like a train. He had completely forgotten to give something to Sonic. "Wait, Sonic! I've gotta go grab something!" he exclaimed as he ran back upstairs. Sonic wondered what was so important that he had to worry that much about it.

Within thirty seconds, he came back downstairs carrying a pair of white gloves. "You need something to protect your hands, too. Your feet aren't the only things that could get hurt. That and Liz put her heart and soul into making them." Liz… She had to leave for a vacation two days ago, so she couldn't see him off today. While they were just a plain white, he liked the cuff design on them. He put them on and moved his fingers around. They felt great, and really comfortable, too, but they were somehow thick and sturdy at the same time. The air moved through like the gloves weren't even there. "She did a really good job. Next time you see her, tell her thank you and that she did a great job."

Milly smiled and picked up his suitcase. "I will." They walked out to the backyard, where there was a whole group of people waiting. Parked there were two vehicles: the Tornado, and the car owned by Milly's new family. As they walked forward, several people waved good-byes to Sonic, and when they finally made it to the two vehicles, which were parked next to each other, Milly set his suitcase down. "Well, old buddy, I guess this is good-bye," he said. Sonic slightly smiled. "For now. I might come back to visit when I won't be reminded so much of what happened."

Mrs. Mutti then broke through the crowd and walked toward Sonic. When she got to him, she embraced him tightly and kissed him on the forehead. "You stay safe now, Ogilvie. I don't want you coming back with a broken bone or anything, all right?" Sonic could tell she was trying to hold back tears as she released him. He winked and gave her a thumbs-up. "Don't worry about me. I'll be fine. It's Milly you should be worried about!" Milly gave him a confused look and asked, "What's that supposed to mean?" Sonic chuckled and replied, "Just kidding, buddy. I know better than anyone that you can take care of yourself, and now you've got two probably great parents waiting to take you home with them. This is an exciting day for both of us."

The two boys both smiled at each other before hugging each other. "I'll miss you, Sonic," whispered Milly. "I'll miss you, too, Milly." When they released each other, Sonic hopped into the Tornado, putting the keys in the ignition and starting the plane after he did. He turned around in the seat and winked at Milly while giving him a thumbs-up. "Bye, buddy! See ya later!" Milly chuckled and waved at him. "Bye, Sonic! Take care! Stay safe! And stay alive, will ya? I want you to come back and see me sometime!" Sonic chuckled as well before responding, "I will!"

Sonic wheeled the Tornado down the alley, gaining speed as he did so. When he had enough speed, he pulled down on the joystick, achieving liftoff. As he flew off, he cast one more glance at the shrinking orphanage, where the people were still waving good-bye. "I'm gonna miss them," he stated. He was truly going to miss them, but Ogilvie Maurice "Sonic" the Hedgehog knew that he had a whole new life waiting for him.

* * *

_Well, I hope you liked, and there will be more coming in the sequel! It will be called _How to Be a Hero, by Sonic the Hedgehog_. It's going to be narrated from Sonic's point of view, and it's going to be a sister story to _The Two-Tailed Fox_, if any of you have read that before. I hope to see you all looking for _How to Be a Hero_, and until next time, auf wiedersehen!_

-Camobamo1


	10. Author's Note

Okay, so I've been gone for a really long time. I apologize for my long leave of absence, but I had a lot going on. First of all, those of you who are following me but haven't checked out my profile, you should probably do so. Second, I am making a rewritten version of this story titled _Before Herosim v2_. I don't think too many of you were actually following me, 'cause I've only gotten one review for either chapter I've posted up so far. So, yeah, that's all I really have to say. ^_^ Auf wiedersehen.

P.S.: I hope you guys don't hate me now. ^_^'


End file.
